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'TV pushed Croc Hunter too far'
04/09/2006 20:11 - (SA)
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| A wooden crocodile outside Australia Zoo at Beerwah is decorated with flowers as a tribute to environmentalist Steve Irwin. (Steve Holland, AP) |
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London - Conservationists mourned the death of Australia's flamboyant "Crocodile Hunter", Steve Irwin, on Monday, and one suggested that TV's demands for sensation had pushed him to be too daring.
"He clearly took a lot of risks and television encouraged him to do that," said Ray Mears, a Briton whose television programs have included Extreme Survival.
"It's a shame that television audiences need that to be attracted to wildlife," said Mears.
"Dangerous animals, you leave them alone because they will defend themselves. Nature defends itself, it isn't all about hugging animals and going 'ahh'."
'Went further than was sensible'
The ebullient Irwin, 44, died after being stung by a stingray barb in a diving accident about 2 000km north off Port Douglas on the Great Barrier Reef.
"What he did was so extreme that it isn't surprising that he died. Just the same, it is very sad," said Kees Oscar Ekeli, a marine biologist and director of the Bergen Aquarium in Norway.
Although Irwin "went further than was sensible", Ekeli credited the Australian for doing "a fantastic job of spreading information about biology... and nature's dangerous species."
"In the modern world's noisy media picture, he used extreme methods to break through, and that is exactly what he did," said Ekeli.
British naturalist David Bellamy said he cried when he heard of Irwin's death.
"The thing with Steve was he mixed damn good science with show business and I don't know anyone else who did that," Bellamy said.
Leaving an immense hole
British zoologist Mark O'Shea, who also has worked on television, said Irwin had made a massive contribution to conservation in Australia.
"It is going to leave an immense hole," said O'Shea, who credited Irwin with inspiring a new generation of conservationists.
"A lot of people who now want to study biology and work with animals may not have considered it before they watched him on television," O'Shea said.
- AP
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