CROCODILE HUNTER

SYDNEY (AFP) - Tributes flooded in from around the globe for legendary Australian "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin, a day after he died in a freak stingray attack that was captured on film.

Australian movie star Russell Crowe, Prime Minister John Howard and Foreign Minister Alexander Downer joined tens of thousands of stunned fans in paying homage to Irwin, who died when a stingray's barb pierced his heart as he filmed an underwater documentary on Monday.

"He was the Australian we all aspire to be," Irwin's friend Crowe said from New York in comments widely reported by the Australian media. "He was and remains the ultimate wildlife warrior.

"I believed in him. I'll miss him," the Oscar-winning star of such films as "Gladiator" and "A Beautiful Mind" said of 44-year-old Irwin, who is believed to have died instantly.

Irwin's final moments were caught on film by his cameraman who was shooting when the stingray struck as he snorkelled about one metre (three feet) above the ray in shallow water off the Queensland town of Port Douglas.

Irwin's longtime friend and "Crocodile Hunter" television
"I did see the footage and it's shocking," Stainton told reporters in Cairns. "It's a very hard thing to watch because you're actually witnessing somebody die ... and it's terrible.

"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," he said. "That was it. The cameraman had to shut down."

While stingrays rarely attack humans -- only three other deaths by stingray have reportedly been recorded in Australia and only 17 worldwide -- their serrated, 20-centimetre (eight-inch) venomous barbs can be as lethal as a knife wound in the chest, experts said.

Coroners in Cairns in the northeastern state of Queensland carried out an autopsy on Irwin late Monday and initial results confirmed that he died after being speared in the chest by the ray's barbed tail on the Great Barrier Reef, police said.

Coroners have a copy of the video and will examine it ahead of the inquest, Queensland police spokeswoman Andrea Lennard told AFP.

The body of the wildlife wild child was Tuesday flown back to his home region near his Australia Zoo on Queensland's Sunshine Coast, where hundreds of fans left flowers, mementoes and messages in honour of the croc wrangler.

"I've been here since 6:00 am and we've had a stream of people non-stop," said zoo spokeswoman Louise Martin, adding that staff at the zoo were shattered by Irwin's death but overwhelmed by the outpouring of affection for him.

"They were coming all last night and this morning. Things are being laid down from T-shirts to little kids' drawings. It's good that they feel like they can connect with him. It's just amazing," she said.

While no details of Irwin's funeral arrangements have been revealed, Queensland Premier Peter Beattie said the man known around the world for his ebullience, thick Aussie accent and khaki bush gear would get a Queensland state funeral if his widow Terri requested one.

"He will be remembered as not just a great Queenslander, but a great Australian," Beattie said of the irrepressible naturalist who became Australia's best-known ambassador.

Stainton, who accompanied his coffin home, told reporters that he felt a state funeral would be appropriate, but that no decision had been made.

"I think it probably would be fitting but it's up to Terri," he said.

Newspapers around the world carried front-page reports on Irwin's grisly death and on his life as a passionate environmental crusader and global media star.

Australian papers described him as an "Aussie hero" and the "real Crocodile Dundee," saying he used his loud persona to sell Australia.

Australian and New Zealand Internet news sites reported large numbers of fans flocking to read reports of Irwin's death and leave messages of tribute in his honour.

Stainton said he never thought his friend -- whose hair -raising confrontations with crocodiles and deadly snakes made him famous -- would be killed by a relatively placid stingray.

"He always pushed himself to the very limits but I thought he was invulnerable and I think he did too. I would never imagine it to come from something like a stingray," he said


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