Crocodile Hunter not eaten by crocodile

Crikey, what were the odds?

If you had come to me last week and offered odds on how Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter, would die, I'd have taken alligator/crocodile attack over any other option.

Stingray attack? Never would have entered my mind.

It's kind of strange, because while Irwin came across as a human cartoon, he seemed to be a pretty nice guy. Now the outpouring of support from the zoo community is pretty touching to see and many are singing his praises as a man who did a lot to help conservation and education efforts.

Like Mr. Rogers' funeral coverage, but with more scars and puncture wounds.

I think my favorite memory is a show that airs every now and again, but never fails to make me laugh.

He had squatted down as he was doing a little explaination about some species of pit viper (snakes that use heat to identify prey) and the realized he was crotch-first into a nest of poisonous snakes.

Words cannot describe the look on his face when he heard the first rattles starting from six inches under his groin.

A few months after the episode aired, a group of us were in the Blarney Stone on Clark Street and Animal Planet was on TV later in the evening, because Margo loved to watch that after the 10 pm to midnight crowd came and went.

As we sat at the bar, I was talking about how much I loved the above mentioned episode and wouldn't you know it, that was the episode on TV right then.

It was like Mystery Science Theater, but with the possibility of a man getting bitten in his naughty bits.

You can't out a price on TV like that. Keep your Survivor re-runs, you can't go wrong with an unhinged Austrailian who was easily distracted or excited.

(Note: Disconnected in Suburbia and Frank the Tank have also weighed in on the subject. Enjoy.)

(Image from dswnet.com)