Irwin was in the water at Batt Reef, off the remote coast of northeastern Queensland state, shooting a segment for a series called "Ocean's Deadliest" when he swam too close to one of the animals, which have a poisonous barb on their tails, said John Stainton, a friend and colleague.

He came on top of the stingray and the stingray's barb went up and into his chest and put an hole into his heart," said Stainton, who was on board Irwin's boat, Croc One, at the time.

Crew members called emergency services in the nearest city, Cairns, and administered CPR as they rushed to nearby Low Isle to meet a rescue helicopter. Medical staff pronounced Irwin dead when they arrived a short time later, Stainton said.

Irwin was famous for his enthusiasm for wildlife and for regularly getting up close and personal with dangerous animals in his television program "Crocodile Hunter," which was first broadcast in Australia in 1992 before it was picked up by the Discovery network, catapulting him to international celebrity.

The world has lost a great wildlife icon, a passionate conservationist and one of the proudest dads on the planet," Stainton told reporters in Cairns. "He died doing what he loved best and left this world in a happy and peaceful state of mind. He would have said, Crocs Rule!"

Prime Minister John Howard, who hand-picked Irwin to attend a gala barbecue to honor U.S. President George W. Bush when he visited in 2003, said he was "shocked and distressed at Steve Irwin's sudden, untimely and freakish death."

It's a huge loss to Australia," Howard told reporters. "He was a wonderful character. He was a passionate environmentalist. He brought joy and entertainment and excitement to millions of people."

Irwin, who made a trademark of hovering dangerously close to untethered crocodiles, often leaping on their backs, talked mile-a-minute in a thick Australian drawl and was almost never seen in anything but khaki shorts and shirt, and heavy boots.

His ebullience was infectious and Australian officials sought him out for photo opportunities and to promote Australia internationally.

He rode the lovable knockabout image in 2002 into a feature film, "The Crocodile Hunters: Collision Course," and developed the wildlife park that his parents opened, Australia Zoo, into a major tourist attraction.

The public image was dented in 2004 when Irwin triggered an uproar by holding his month-old son in one arm while feeding large crocodiles inside a zoo pen. Irwin claimed at the time there was no danger to his son, and authorities declined to charge Irwin with violating safety regulations.

Later that year, he was accused of getting too close to penguins, a seal and humpback whales in Antarctica while making a documentary. Irwin denied any wrongdoing, and an Australian Environment Department investigation recommended no action be taken against him.

Irwin was born Feb. 22, 1962, in the southern city of Melbourne and was immersed in the Australian bush eight years later when his parents moved to Sunshine Coast in tropical Queensland and opened a reptile park.

Irwin was given a scrub python for his sixth birthday and was catching crocodiles by nine, according to details from the zoo. He worked as a crocodile trapper in his 20s, removing problematic animals from populated areas. In 1991, he took over the Australia Zoo when his parents retired.

News of Irwin's death spread quickly, and tributes flowed in.

At Australia Zoo in Queensland, flowers were dropped at the entrance; drivers honked their horns as they passed.

Steve, from all God's creatures, thank you. Rest in peace," was written on a card with a bouquet of native flowers.

We're all very shocked. I don't know what the zoo will do without him. He's done so much for us, the environment and it's a big loss," said Paula Kelly, a local resident and volunteer at the zoo, after dropping off a wreath at the gate.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, who used a photograph of his family at Australia Zoo for his official Christmas card last year, hailed Irwin for his work in promoting Australia as a tourist destination through projects such as one called "G'Day LA."

Stainton said Irwin's American wife Terri, from Eugene, Ore., had been informed of his death, and had told their daughter Bindi Sue, 8, and son Bob, who will turn 3 in December.

The couple met when she went on vacation in Australia in 1991 and visited Irwin's Australia Zoo; they were married six months later.

Stingray's have a serrated, toxin-loaded bard, or spine, up to 25 centimeters (10 inches) long on top of their tails. The barb flexes reflexively if a ray is frightened, and a sting to a person is usually excruciatingly painful but not deadly, said University of Queensland marine neuroscientist Shaun Collin.

Collin said he suspected Irwin died because the barb pierced under his ribcage and stabbed directly into his heart.

It was extraordinarily bad luck. It's not easy to get spined by a stingray and to be killed by one is very rare," Collin said.
CAIRNS, Australia - Videotape of Steve Irwin's last moments shows him pulling a poisonous stingray barb from his chest but no evidence that he had provoked the fish, officials said Tuesday, as tributes poured in for TV's beloved "Crocodile Hunter."

Irwin, 44, who made a career out of getting dangerously close to deadly beasts, was stabbed through the heart Monday while swimming with the stingray during filming of a new TV program on Australia's Great Barrier Reef.

John Stainton, Irwin's manager who was among the crew on the reef, said the fatal blow that came while Irwin was snorkeling was caught on videotape, and described viewing the footage as having the "terrible" experience of watching a friend die.

It shows that Steve came over the top of the ray and the tail came up, and spiked him here (in the chest), and he pulled it out and the next minute he's gone," Stainton told reporters in the Queensland state city of Cairns, where Irwin's body was taken for an autopsy.

Police were holding the tape as evidence for a coroner's inquiry - a standard procedure in high-profile deaths or those caused by other than natural causes.

Experts agree human deaths caused by stingrays are extremely rare and speculate the stingray may have felt trapped between the cameraman and the TV star.

But Queensland Police Superintendent Michael Keating said there was no evidence Irwin threatened or intimidated the stingray, a normally placid species that only deploys its poisonous tail spines as a defense.

Stainton said Irwin was in his element in the Outback, but that he and Irwin had talked about the sea posing threats the star wasn't used to.

If ever he was going to go, we always said it was going to be the ocean," Stainton said. "On land he was agile, quick-thinking, quick-moving and the ocean puts another element there that you have no control over."

Irwin's American wife, Terri, and two young children returned late Monday from a trekking vacation in Tasmania to Australia Zoo, the wildlife park where the family lived at Beerwah in Queensland's southeast.

Australia Zoo was open Tuesday - staff said it was what he would have wanted - but the mood was somber and most visitors paid respects at a makeshift shrine of bouquets and handwritten condolence messages at the gate.

Mate, you made the world a better place," read one poster. "Steve, our hero, our legend, our wildlife warrior," read another. Khaki shirts - a trademark of Irwin - were laid out for people to sign.

Parliament interrupted its normal schedule so lawmakers could pay tribute to Irwin, whose body was flown home Tuesday from Cairns. No funeral plans were announced but state Premier Peter Beattie said Irwin would be afforded a state funeral if his family agreed.

He was a genuine, one-off, remarkable Australian individual and I am distressed at his death," Prime Minister John Howard said.

Irwin was propelled to global fame after his TV shows, in which he regularly wrestled with crocodiles and went face-to-face with poisonous snakes and other wild animals, were shown around world on the Discovery Channel.

The network announced plans for a marathon screening of Irwin's work and a wildlife fund in his name.

Rarely has the world embraced an animal enthusiast and conservationist as they did Steve Irwin," Discovery Networks International President Dawn McCall said in a statement.
NEW YORK - "If I'm going to die," the late "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin said in a 2002 interview, "at least I want it filmed."

He spoke with his usual humor, and clearly had no idea what would happen four years later. But the fact is, a tape does exist of Irwin's fatal encounter with a stingray while filming a TV show. And so the question arises: In the age of instant Web videos, might it get out? And in the broader sense, is making footage of a death public ever justified?

For its part, Discovery Communications, the network where Irwin became a star, said there was absolutely no truth to rumors that the footage, now in possession of police in Queensland, Australia, might be released.

But that doesn't mean there aren't concerns that someone could attempt to get their hands on it and publicize it for lurid means - or just to show they had it. That, said media analyst Martin Kaplan, would be tantamount to a snuff film.

The only remote justification for publicizing this would be accident prevention," said Kaplan, of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California. "But that argument is a stretch." Experts say deaths from a stingray encounter are exceedingly rare.

Irwin died Monday at age 44 after being stabbed in the chest by the stingray's poisonous spine while filming on the Great Barrier Reef.

He was hugely popular in the United States, becoming a star as the "Crocodile Hunter" on Discovery's Animal Planet channel. In an interview with Associated Press Radio in 2002, he discussed his passion for grappling with crocodiles: "That's what my hand and my brains are designed to do," he said with his trademark enthusiasm. "That's what I have to give to the world."

In the same interview, he noted: "If I'm going to die, at least I want it filmed ... If we blew a million dollars worth of cameras, at least we could have gone to MGM and gone, 'Hey, look at this tape.'"

Irwin's manager and close friend, John Stainton, had the painful experience of watching the videotape where Irwin pulls the stingray barb from his chest. He called it "shocking."

It's a very hard thing to watch, because you are actually witnessing somebody die, and it's terrible," he told reporters.

The fact that a tape exists recalls the death of Timothy Treadwell, a bear enthusiast who lived among them for a dozen years in Alaska before being fatally mauled in 2003. A video camera with the lens cap on captured the audio of that attack. It is in possession of a friend and has never emerged in public - though in his acclaimed documentary "Grizzly Man," director Werner Herzog was seen listening to it with headphones on.

Samuel G. Freedman, who teaches a media ethics class at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, says the issue is "whether there is any compelling public interest" in the release of something so shocking as footage of a death. Here, he says, there clearly isn't.

The lay person is not going into the water trying to have encounters with stingrays," Freedman said. "It would be purely titillation and necrophilia if anyone were to show this."

There are dramatically different cases, Freedman believes, where there is a compelling public interest in having the option - as in the voluntary click of a mouse - to see the reality of a grisly death. To learn the harsh lessons of war, for example, or to witness the brutality of the beheadings by Islamic militants in Iraq - videos that were posted on Web sites used by the militants. (Others have argued that the existence of the militant videos is apalling.)

But those are very particular cases. In general, the explanations fall flat, says Kaplan of the Annenberg School, as when the Italian magazine that recently published a photo of Princess Diana getting oxygen moments after her fatal car crash called it "tender" and "touching."

In an era where almost everything ends up making it to the Web, is it inevitable that such a tape as that of Irwin's death would emerge?

Only in the sense that there's a race for the bottom in our culture," Kaplan says. "This will take substantial vigilance on the part of the family."
BEERWAH, Australia - "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin, killed in a freak stingray attack this week, would not have wanted a state funeral because he wanted to be remembered as "an ordinary bloke," the TV star's father said Wednesday.

In the first public comments by Irwin's family since the hugely popular naturalist died Monday, Bob Irwin thanked his son's many fans for their messages of support, and said his son died doing what he loved.

Prime Minister John Howard said a state funeral was appropriate, calling Irwin a great ambassador for Australia. But Bob Irwin said it wouldn't be what Steve wanted.

He's an ordinary guy, and he wants to be remembered as an ordinary bloke," Irwin's father said. "The state funeral would be refused."

The 44-year-old TV star was being filmed snorkeling with a stingray on the Great Barrier Reef when it lashed out with its tail, plunging a poisonous barb into his chest. He died minutes later.

Thousands of fans have flocked to his Australia Zoo wildlife park in Queensland state, creating a shrine of flowers and written tributes.

Bob Irwin, who started the wildlife park that his son turned into a major tourist attraction, said Steve realized his work was dangerous and that he could die doing it.

Both of us over the years have had some very close shaves and we both approached it the same way, we made jokes about it," he said. "That's not to say we were careless. But we treated it as part of the job. Nothing to worry about really."

We weren't like father and son, we never were," he continued. "We were mates. I will remember Steve as my best mate ever."

Michael Hornby, the head of one of Irwin's wildlife charities, Wildlife Warriors, said the star's wife, Terri Irwin, was considering the state funeral offer, but Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio later reported that she had already decided against it.

Hornby said Terri Irwin was also thinking about having a smaller, private ceremony at an Outback location and approving a separate large event at a stadium in the state capital, Brisbane.

Separately Wednesday, Irwin's manager and close friend John Stainton said the videotape showing him being fatally stabbed should never be publicly aired.

It should be destroyed," Stainton told CNN's "Larry King Live." He said he has seen the footage and it shows Irwin pulling the barb from his chest in his last moments.

The tape is in the possession of police as evidence for the coroner.

The Discovery Channel, which produced and aired Irwin's programs to a reported global audience of more than 200 million, said it will not show the footage.

Police have said there are no suspicious circumstances in Irwin's death, and no decision has been made about whether a coroner will hold a formal inquest or simply accept the police findings. No formal cause of death has been announced.

Terri Irwin briefly addressed park staff late Tuesday over a public address system.

She was very choked up. It was a very frail comment," Hornby told The Associated Press Wednesday. "But she wanted to say to the staff how grateful she was for their support and how much it meant to her."

Bob Irwin said he had just spent nearly a month with his son's family on Cape York in tropical northern Australia doing crocodile research.

Steve was probably the best I had seen him in many years, in his own personal attitude," he said. "He was peaceful. He was not under stress. And he was doing something that he really loved doing. I won't ever forget that three or four weeks."
BEERWAH, Australia - Steve Irwin pulled a poisonous stingray barb from his chest in his dying moments, his longtime manager said Tuesday, after watching videotape of the attack that killed the popular "Crocodile Hunter."

Irwin's body was returned home to Beerwah, a hamlet in southeastern Queensland on the fringe of the Outback where he lived with his wife and two young children. Irwin turned a modest reptile park opened by his parents into Australia Zoo, a wildlife reserve that has become an international tourist attraction.

Terri Irwin, in her first public comment since her husband's death, thanked the staff of his zoo in a brief message late Tuesday, said spokesman Michael Hornby.

She was very choked up. It was a very frail comment," Hornby told The Associated Press Wednesday. "But she wanted to say to the staff how grateful she was for their support and how much it meant to her." Details weren't made public.

Irwin's father, Bob, thanked his son's fans Wednesday for their messages of support and said his son died doing what he loved.

There were many things that could have gone wrong," Irwin said in a news conference that was broadcast live across Australia. "Steve knew the risks (of what) he was doing, and he wouldn't have wanted it any other way."

Hundreds placed bouquets and handwritten notes at an ad hoc shrine to the popular 44-year-old naturalist outside the park, and other tributes flowed in from Canberra to Hollywood.

The dramatic details of Irwin's death Monday as he was shooting a program on the Great Barrier Reef were disclosed by John Stainton, his manager and close friend. He said he had viewed the videotape showing the TV star pulling the poisonous stingray barb from his chest.

It shows that Steve came over the top of the ray and the tail came up, and spiked him here (in the chest), and he pulled it out, and the next minute he's gone," Stainton said in Cairns, the nearest city to tiny Batt Reef off Australia's far northeast coast where the accident happened.

Stainton estimated Irwin's distance from the stingray when the attack happened at about 3 feet.

He said the video was "shocking."

It's a very hard thing to watch, because you are actually witnessing somebody die, and it's terrible," he said.

The tape was not released to the public. Queensland state police took possession of a copy for a coroner's investigation.

Stainton said the tape should be destroyed when the coroner is finished. "I would never want that tape shown. I mean, it should be destroyed," he said on CNN's "Larry King Live."

The Discovery Channel, which produced Irwin's programs, said it wouldn't show the footage.

State police Superintendent Michael Keating said Irwin was "interacting" with the stingray when it flicked its tail and speared his chest with the bone-hard serrated spine it bore - the normally placid animal's main defense mechanism.

There is no evidence Mr. Irwin was threatening or intimidating the stingray," Keating said, addressing speculation that a man who became famous by leaping on crocodiles and snatching up snakes must have been too close for the animal's comfort.

Police have said there are no suspicious circumstances in Irwin's death, and no decision has been made about whether a coroner will hold a formal inquest or simply accept the police findings.

Irwin's boundless energy and daredevil antics around deadly beasts made him a household name as the Discovery Channel's "The Crocodile Hunter," with a reported audience of more than 200 million.

Australia's leaders interrupted Parliament's normal business to eulogize Irwin.

He was a genuine, one-off, remarkable Australian individual and I am distressed at his death," Prime Minister John Howard said.

His opposition counterpart, Kim Beazley, said: "He was not only a great Aussie bloke, he was determined to instill his passion for the environment and its inhabitants in everybody he met."

Friend and Oscar-winner Russell Crowe said from New York: "He was and remains the ultimate wildlife warrior."

The U.S. Embassy issued a statement saying Irwin was an unofficial Australian ambassador to the United States.

With his humor and irrepressible sense of adventure, he represented those things our citizens find most appealing about Australia and its wonderful way of life," it said.

Hundreds of people journeyed Tuesday to Australia Zoo to remember Irwin.

Tia Koivisto drove her daughter Ella, 3, for more than an hour from the Queensland capital of Brisbane to lay a floral tribute. "I was quite moved by what happened, I felt I had to come up and pay my respects," she said.

People thronged around the entrance of the park, near a billboard featuring Irwin holding a crocodile in his arms and his catch phrase, "Crikey!"

We're all devastated," said Gail Gipp, the park's hospital wildlife manager. "It is very surreal at the moment. We're determined to carry on what he would have wanted."

There was no condolence book, but mourners lined up to sign messages onto khaki work shirts - another Irwin trademark - that were draped outside the gate. Someone placed flowers in the mouth of a wooden crocodile nearby.

Mate, you made the world a better place," read one poster left at the gate. "Steve, our hero, our legend, our wildlife warrior," read another.

I thought you were immortal. How I wish that was true," said a third.

Zoo spokesman Peter Lang said Irwin's wife, Terri, of Eugene, Ore., daughter Bindi, 8, and son Bob, 2, arrived Monday night from the island state of Tasmania, where they had been vacationing when Irwin was killed.

The prime minister said a state funeral would be appropriate for Irwin, if that's what the family wished. Hornby told The Associated Press that Terri Irwin was deciding between a state funeral or having a smaller, private ceremony at an Outback location and approving a separate event at a stadium in Brisbane.

We'll never replace Steve," said Hornby, head of the Wildlife Warriors, one of the Irwin family's conservation charities. "He was part of the family, like he came out of the television set and into your living room. That's why there's been such an outpouring of emotion here and around the world. Everybody thought they knew him."

Meanwhile, Animal Planet said it had given no thought to taking "The Crocodile Hunter" off the air, said Maureen Smith, the network's executive vice president and general manager.

Steve's whole mission in life was to educate and inspire the public to take care of animals in the world that we share," she said. "To continue is the best way to get that message out."

Irwin was filming a new series, "Ocean's Deadliest Predators," for Animal Planet. Smith said she wasn't aware whether enough filming had been done for anything to make it on the air.
BEERWAH, Australia - A public memorial service for "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin began Wednesday with a tribute from actor Russell Crowe.

It was way too soon for all of us," Crowe said in the recorded tribute. "We have lost a friend, a champion. It will take some time to adjust to that."

Australian Prime Minister, among the 5,000 in attendance at the Australia Zoo for the ceremony, was the first to speak at the memorial.

This is ... a celebration of terrific life well-lived," Howard said. "For all of us, it is touched with the deepest possible conceivable sadness."

As expected, there was one empty seat at Steve Irwin's personal stadium - the one set aside for the late and hugely popular "Crocodile Hunter" himself.

A zany television entertainer and conservationist, Irwin, 44, was killed Sept. 4 when the barb from a stingray pierced his chest while he was filming for a TV show on the Great Barrier Reef. His family held a private funeral service for him on Sept. 9 at Australia Zoo.

Flags on the Sydney Harbor Bridge flew Wednesday at half-staff, and giant television screens were set up in Irwin's home state of Queensland for people to watch the service. Three of Australia's main television networks carried the hour-long ceremony, which was to be made available to U.S. and international networks and which family officials said could be watched by as many as 300 million people.
BEERWAH, Australia - "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin was remembered Wednesday for his "great zest for life" at a public memorial service for the beloved conservationist and entertainer.

We have lost a friend, a champion," actor Russell Crowe said in a recorded tribute. "It will take some time to adjust to that."

Prime Minister John Howard, among the 5,000 in attendance at the Australia Zoo for the ceremony, remembered Irwin for his love of Australia.

Steve Irwin touched the hearts of Australians and touched the hearts of millions around the world in a very special way," said Howard. "He did that because he had that quality of being genuine, of being authentic, of being unconditional and having a great zest for life.

Throughout his all-too-short life he demonstrated a love for the two things that ought to matter more to all of us than anything else - his love of his family and his love of his country."

A exuberant television entertainer and conservationist, Irwin, 44, died Sept. 4 when the barb from a stingray pierced his chest while he was filming for a TV show on the Great Barrier Reef. His family held a private funeral service for him on Sept. 9 at Australia Zoo.

The ceremony Wednesday featured footage of the hugely popular television program that coaxed laughter from the attendees.

As expected, there was one empty seat at Irwin's personal stadium - the one set aside for the late and hugely popular "Crocodile Hunter" himself. On the stage sat Irwin's widow, American-born Terri, and their two children, Bindi, 8, and Bob, 2 - all dressed in Irwin's favored khaki outfit. It was their first public appearance since Irwin's death.

Please do not grieve for Steve, he's at peace now," said Steve's father, Bob Irwin. "Grieve for the animals. They have lost the best friend they ever had, and so have I."

Later, Bindi Irwin told the crowd at the ceremony that she had the "best daddy in the world."

I will miss him every day," she said.

Flags on the Sydney Harbor Bridge flew Wednesday at half-staff, and giant television screens were set up in Irwin's home state of Queensland for people to watch the service. Three of Australia's main television networks carried the hour-long ceremony, which was made available to U.S. and international networks and which family officials said could be watched by as many as 300 million people.

One of Irwin's favorite Australian country singers, John Williamson, sang one of the naturalist's favorite songs, "True Blue."

At the end of the ceremony, Irwin's utility vechicle, packed with camping gear and his favorite surfboard, was driven from the stadium - through an honor guard of Australia Zoo employees - to an encore singing of "True Blue."

After the truck left the stadium, a group of employees spelled out Irwin's catchword "Crikey" in yellow flowers on the ground.

Crowds began lining up Tuesday night for the start of the memorial service. Later, under sunny skies just before the start of the ceremony, dozens of television satellite transmission trucks were parked outside the zoo, a flora and fauna park owned by the Irwin family since 1970.

Irwin's death set off an unprecedented outpouring of grief. Tens of thousands traveled to the zoo near Brisbane to drop off flowers and other mementoes, many of them signing khaki shirts instead of a condolence book.

Since Irwin's death, his conservation charity Wildlife Warriors has seen a surge in donations and its Web site has received millions of hits.

As part of the public memorial entitled "He Changed Our World," actress Cameron Diaz said in a video presentation that Irwin was incredibly popular in the United States.

America just flipped for him," said Diaz. "Every kid was in love with the idea of being him."

Actor Kevin Costner said Irwin put himself "out there" for everyone to see.

He was fearless," said Costner in the video tribute. "He let us see who he was. That is being brave in today's society."
LOS ANGELES - Marine explorer Jean-Michel Cousteau said Tuesday that while he mourns the recent death of "The Crocodile Hunter," Steve Irwin, he disagrees with Irwin's hands-on approach to nature television.

While promoting his new two-part TV special, "Jean-Michel Cousteau: Ocean Adventures - America's Underwater Treasures," Cousteau called Irwin's death "very, very unfortunate."

He had "a lot of respect" for Irwin, who he didn't know personally, and his "environmental message," Cousteau said.

But, he added, Irwin would "interfere with nature, jump on animals, grab them, hold them, and have this very, very spectacular, dramatic way of presenting things. Of course, it goes very well on television. It sells, it appeals to a lot people, but I think it's very misleading. You don't touch nature, you just look at it. And that's why I'm still alive. I've been diving over 61 years - a lot many more years that he's been alive - and I don't mess with nature."

Irwin died Sept. 4 when a stingray's barb pieced his chest while he was filming an underwater sequence at the Great Barrier Reef. Irwin was 44.
BRISBANE, Australia - An Australian man who says "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin shaped his love for reptiles said Tuesday he plans to feed the placenta from his newborn son to his pet goannas to bring the family closer to lizards.

Wil Kemp, a reptile keeper at Rockhampton Zoo in northeastern Queensland state, said his second son was born on Sept. 5, the day after Irwin was killed by a stingray attack while filming on the Great Barrier Reef.

Kemp and his fiance Kahila Pepper gave the boy the first and second names Tai and Irwin - the former after the taipan snake and the latter after the television star and conservationist.

Kemp said the couple planned to feed the placenta to their three pet goannas, which live in pits in the family's backyard, after a homecoming gathering on Sunday.

I think we'll just break some beers, chuck it in and do it," said Kemp, 21.

The couple came up with the idea after nurses told them they could take the placenta - the organ that grows in the womb to be the interface for nutrients and blood between mother and fetus that comes out during childbirth - home if they wished.
NEW YORK - "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin's widow says she hasn't seen the film of her husband's deadly encounter with a stingray and that it won't ever be shown on television.

What purpose would that serve?" Terri Irwin said in an interview with ABC's Barbara Walters scheduled to air on television Wednesday in the United States and Australia.

Irwin, 44, died Sept. 4 when a stringray's barb pierced his chest while he filmed a TV show on the Great Barrier Reef. A memorial service held for him last week was broadcast on three television networks in Australia.

Irwin's friend and business partner, John Stainton, has seen the film. He told Walters he never wants to see it again and doesn't want anyone else to see it, either. "It's just a horrible piece of film tape," he said.

American-born Terri Irwin said she was on a research trip in Australia with the couple's two children - 8-year-old daughter Bindi and 2-year-old son Bob - when her brother-in-law reached her with the news.

I remember thinking, 'Don't say it. Don't say it. Don't say it,'" she said. "I looked out the window, and Bindi was skipping, skipping along outside the -blocked- And I thought, 'Oh, my children. He wouldn't have wanted to leave the children.' And I knew it was an accident. It was an accident so stupid. It was like running with a pencil."

She said it's important for her family to continue the work her husband did in teaching the world about wildlife.

I've always told Bindi, 'If anything ever happened to me, I will always watch over you from Heaven,'" she said. "But she always understood because living at a zoo, animals die, she's seen death. She knows what death is."

Irwin told Walters she is getting through her grief "one minute at a time."

She said her son Bob recently took a screwdriver out of the drawer and said he was going to fix the family's motorbike.

Off he goes, very carefully carrying it like it was a lit candle," she said. "Goes up to the motorbike and starts poking at it. I said, 'what are you doing to the motorbike?' He said, 'I'm fixing the motorbike so daddy can drive it from heaven.'"
LATEST: STEVE IRWIN's widow TERRI is reportedly "devastated" by an episode of controversial TV cartoon SOUTH PARK that pokes fun at the late CROCODILE HUNTER.
Terri, 42, is said to be worried that Irwin's children BINDI, eight, and BOB, two, will see the show, which portrays the late star with a stingray sticking out of his chest less than two months after he died.
Last night (27OCT06), Australian TV channel SBS said it is planning to air the episode in Australia next year (07) or in 2008. It has already been shown in the US.
A friend of Irwin's widow says, "Terri is devastated Steve is being mocked in such a cruel way. Her worry is that Bindi and Bob will see it and break down.
Steve had as big a sense of humour as anyone, but this goes too far too soon."
British TV naturalist MARK AMEY, 44, who worked alongside Irwin, backed the sentiments, saying, "My message to people is don't watch the show. It's distasteful s***. Let's hope none of Steve's fans who keep poisonous animals happen to find the addresses of those behind the show and leave them a nice surprise."
Irwin was killed by a stingray barb off the coast of Queensland, Australia on 4 September (06) while filming a segment for his daughter's new TV show. (NCL/WNTST/SH)
SYDNEY, Australia - Authorities gave the video of "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin's fatal encounter with a stingray to his family and destroyed all copies to prevent the grisly footage from being made public, an Australian state coroner said Thursday.
Irwin, 44, died on Sept. 4 after being stabbed in the chest by the stingray's poisonous barb while filming a documentary on the Great Barrier Reef off the Queensland coast.
Queensland State Coroner Michael Barnes said authorities gave the original video to his wife, Terri, in late December and destroyed other copies.
The footage has been the subject of widespread media interest and it was wholly appropriate that we took all possible steps to ensure something of such a personal and tragic nature did not fall into the wrong hands," Barnes said in a statement. "This is in line with the wishes of the Irwin family."
Police made a small number of copies of the video to assist their inquiry into the cause of Irwin's death, but they were kept under tight security throughout the investigation, the coroner's office said.
Speculation had been rife that footage of Irwin's death could eventually be posted on the Internet.
Calls to the Irwin family's Australia Zoo were not immediately returned Thursday, but in an interview with U.S. television last September, Terri Irwin, originally of Eugene, Ore., said the video should never see the light of day.
What purpose would that serve?" she told ABC's Barbara Walters, adding that she herself had not seen the video.
Irwin's friend and business partner, John Stainton, has seen the film. He told Walters he never wants to see it again and doesn't want anyone else to see it, either. "It's just a horrible piece of film tape," he said.

The death of the exuberant television entertainer and conservationist set off an unprecedented outpouring of grief. Tens of thousands traveled to Irwin's zoo near Brisbane to drop off flowers and other mementoes, many of them signing khaki shirts instead of a condolence book.

TWINSBURG, Ohio - Crikey! A talking "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin action figure that has his recorded voice reciting his signature phrase will go on sale nationwide next month.

With the blessing of his widow, the 39-piece Steve Irwin Wildlife Adventure Series as well as plush toys and educational items will launch next month at the 2007 International Toy Fair in New York, toy maker K&M International said.

K&M was ready to stop the international launch after Irwin died Sept. 4 from a poisonous stingray barb piercing his chest, but Terri Irwin wanted to go ahead, said G.B. Pillai, K&M president.

We want people to know what he stood for and never forget him," Pillai said.

Irwin had recorded the voice for his action figure, dressed in khaki shorts and shirt with hiking boots. The doll describes a crocodile rescue, sprinkled with funny phrases in his thick Australian accent.

Holy Guacamole!" it says at one point. "Do you see that? It's a giant golden orb spider and she's built her web right across our path! It's super sticky for catching small birds and bats. Let's not disturb it."

The toys will also be sold in Canada, the United Kingdom, France and Germany. They've been sold at Irwin's family-owned Australia Zoo for the past year. K&M also plans to launch a line of plush toys called Bindi's Friends, named for the Irwins' daughter, who will debut her own show on the Discovery Channel.

Irwin's final documentary, called "Ocean's Deadliest," is to air Sunday on Discovery. It will not include footage shot the day he died.

NEW YORK - The media-savvy 8-year-old daughter of the late "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin is doing her bit to promote her native Australia, adding music to her prowess with animals.
Bindi Irwin appeared on stage Saturday as part of the annual Australia Week tourism promotion, singing about snakes and eagles while fellow cast members held live animals.
At least one young audience member was inspired by Bindi's show.
I want to become a conservationist and go to Australia when I graduate from college," said 7-year-old Megan Meyer.
Bindi's father was killed by a stingray last fall while filming one of his popular television documentaries on Australia's Great Barrier Reef.
At an appearance Friday in Washington, Bindi said she is ready to continue her father's work spreading the wonder of wildlife.
I'm going to become a wildlife warrior just like he was," she said at the National Press Club.

Bindi Irwin, left, her brother Robert Irwin pose for pictures during a promo... 3 hours ago
NEW YORK — Like father, like son? The 4-year-old son of "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin wasn't at all alarmed when he was recently bitten by a baby boa constrictor, according to his mother.
He picked one of them up and it bit him on the finger, and he was so proud to have copped his first hit," Irwin's widow, Terri, said Monday at an appearance at FAO Schwarz with her two children to promote a new line of toys.
He said, 'I hope it wasn't venomous,' so I assured Robert I wouldn't actually let him play with venomous snakes," she added. Terri Irwin said the couple's 9-year-old daughter, Bindi, was first bitten by a snake when she was 18 months old. The girl, who is featured in the Discovery Kids Channel show "Bindi the Jungle Girl," posed for cameras with a new action figure in her likeness.
It's every little girl's dream to have an exact look-alike doll. It's amazing," said Bindi, who was signing action figure toys of her late father.
Steve Irwin, known through his nature TV series as a wrangler of crocodiles and snakes, died in 2006 from a stingray's barbed tail during an underwater documentary shoot. He was 44.
Irwin provoked an international outcry in 2004 after being filmed holding his then 1-month-old son while feeding a snapping crocodile.
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