waters alone-are rarely ever fatal, though the pain from stingray venom is said to be excruciating. These types of attacks-some 1,500 per year occur in U.S. These usually involve unwitting waders who step on rays nestled into the sand, hiding from predators. Worldwide, death by stingray is similarly rare, with only one or two fatal attacks reported each year.īut non-fatal stingray attacks occur frequently in shallow waters worldwide. Both victims were stung in the chest, like Irwin. Only two have been reported in Australian waters since 1945. Tail spines are an effective deterrent to predators, like sharks, that commonly target stingrays.įatal stingray attacks on humans are exceedingly rare.
Stingrays harbor these weapons for one purpose: protection. The ray that attacked Irwin plunged its rear tail barb, reportedly close to eight inches long, into his chest. Short-tail stingrays possess two tail spines: a slender spike in front of a huge jagged bayonet. Typically regarded as inquisitive but wary fish, all stingrays are armed with at least one serrated venomous spine at the base of their whip-like tails. The largest of all stingrays, the short-tail can grow up to 14 feet long and tip the scales at more than 750 pounds. The short-tail stingray, Dasyatis brevicaudata, is a huge and normally docile fish. The poisonous stinger punctured Irwin’s heart, killing him almost instantly. Irwin was filming a documentary off the coast of Queensland, Australia, on September 4th when a short-tail stingray swimming below him suddenly speared him through the chest with its dagger-like tail spine. Farshad Khorrami’s Robotic Ray Robert Goodier įor a man who made his living tangling with some of the most ferocious creatures on Earth, Steve Irwin met his end at the hands of an unlikely suspect.
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