Steve Irwin died tragically, and the fact that he left behind two small kids, Bindi and Robert, made his death even more heartbreaking.
What was his cause of death? That's what some fans are wondering as Robert Irwin, now 21, takes the stage for the Dancing With the Stars finale on November 25. Robert was only 8 years old when his dad died.
How did Steve Irwin die?
Steve died on September 4, 2006, at the age of 44. He was filming an underwater documentary when he was attacked by a stingray, according to People.
Steve was filming "in the Batt Reef off the coast of Australia" when the tragedy occurred, People reported, adding that the attack was "unprovoked."
According to TODAY, Steve "was filming a scene for his daughter Bindi's upcoming television series when a stingray pierced his heart with its poisonous barb." The show was called Ocean Deadliest.
"It was just a freak accident. You certainly couldn't have predicted it," Phillippe Cousteau, the grandson of explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau, told TODAY. He was on the boat when Steve died. "It just happened."
Steve was snorkeling alongside the stingray, but video footage of that moment has been destroyed, TODAY reported.
Justin Lyons, an underwater cameraman for Steve, told Studio 10 in Australia, "He obviously didn't know it had punctured his heart, but he knew it had punctured his lung."
According to The Guardian, "the jagged barb punctured Irwin's chest dozens of times, causing a massive injury to his heart." Lyons believes the stingray may have mistaken Irwin for a tiger shark.
"He was having trouble breathing. Even if we'd been able to get him into an emergency ward at that moment we probably wouldn't have been able to save him, because the damage to his heart was massive," Lyons told Studio 10.
"As we're motoring back I'm screaming at one of the other crew in the boat to put their hand over the wound and we're saying to him things like, 'Think of your kids, Steve, hang on, hang on, hang on.' He just sort of calmly looked up at me and said, 'I'm dying.' And that was the last thing he said."
Lyons added, "I had the camera on. I thought – this is going to be a great shot, fantastic. All of a sudden it propped on its front and started stabbing wildly with its tail, hundreds of strikes in a few seconds."
He told the television station, "It's a jagged, sharp barb, and it went through his chest like a hot knife through butter. He had a two-inch wide injury over his heart, with blood and fluid coming out of it."
Steve sometimes caused controversy. TODAY recalls that he "was filmed holding his then month-old son, Robert, while feeding a crocodile," sparking a furor.
According to his bio on the website of the Australia Zoo, Steve grew up loving wildlife. "By the time he was nine years old, Steve was helping catch small problem crocodiles, hanging around boat ramps, by jumping on them in the water and wrestling them back into the dinghy," the bio says. "He always had an uncanny sixth sense when it came to wildlife and spent his life honing that skill."
He became known as a "Crocodile Hunter."
"As Steve’s love for crocodiles grew, he spent months on end living in the most remote areas of far north Queensland catching problem crocodiles for the Queensland Government," the bio says. "He did all this with the company of his dear little dog. Steve developed crocodile capture and management techniques that are now utilised with crocodilians around the world."
He met his wife — Robert and Bindi's mom — Terri, when she traveled to Australia as a tourist. They married in Oregon in 1992, the bio says. The pair then started a wildlife documentary show on television.
"Steve treasured every opportunity to share his love for wildlife with his children, Bindi and Robert," the bio adds. "He instilled in them the need to treat every living being with kindness. Steve was incredibly proud of his children and often said if he was to be remembered for anything, he hoped that it was for being a good dad."
According to a journal article published on the National Library of Medicine website, "Stingrays can have between one and three spinal blades. The stinger is covered with rows of sharp spines made of vasodentin, a cartilaginous material that can easily cut through the skin."
The article notes: "The stingray is unique from other venomous animals in that the venom storage is not in a gland. The venom is stored inside its own secretory cells within the grooves on the undersides of the spine." Stingray injuries are common, the article says.
"Stingrays are very common throughout tropical marine waters and freshwaters. There are over 150 species of stingray worldwide, ranging in size from inches to 6.5 feet and in the larger species weighing as much as 800 pounds. Stingrays often feed in or near coral reefs, causing frequent human injuries," the journal article says. "In the United States, there are approximately 750 to 2000 stingray injuries reported annually." However, fatalities only occur a few times a year.