By Sarah Smithon Monday, 4 Sep 2006 Tributes have been pouring in for "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin, who was killed by a stingray while he was filming a documentary about dangerous marine animals.
David Bellamy said his death would leave an "immense hole" in the world of conservation and said he was "one of the greatest showmen and conservationists".
The 44-year-old was filming a sequence for a series called Ocean's Deadliest off the north-east coast of Australia when a stingray barb punctured his chest.
Emergency services were called from nearby Cairns but it is believed Irwin died instantly.
The stingray has a razor-sharp toxic barb at the end of its tail, which it uses to defend itself. However, the creatures have caused very few human deaths and experts suggest that Irwin was extremely unlucky.
But Irwin relentlessly chased danger, wrestling man-eating crocodiles and Komodo dragons as millions of viewers tuned in to see his antics.
"Now and again I do get bitten, but I haven't been killed," he had told Australia's ABC television. "And it's that, you know, that sense of morbidity that people do have. There's no use sticking your head in the sand and going, 'Oh, no, they're only here because, you know, I talk well'. Nah, man, they wanna see me come unglued."
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