Who was Steve Irwin? How did the wildlife expert die? How old was Steve Irwin when he died? Everything you need to know

29 March 2019, 11:31 | Updated: 29 March 2019, 11:36

By Alice Dear

Wildlife expert and famous documentary maker Steve Irwin would have turned 57-years-old earlier this year.

Steve Irwin was one of the most famous wildlife documentary makers in the world before his tragic death in 2006.

On the day Steve would have turned 57-years-old, Google Doodle honoured him with a crocodile drawing around the search engine.

But who was Steve? How did he die? Did he have any children? Here’s everything you need to know as the world remembers the legend behind the phrase “crickey!”.

Who was Steve Irwin?

Steve Irwin was a zookeeper, conservationist, and television personality who dedicated his life to wildlife conservation.

Steve was born in Australia on 22 February 1962.

The crocodile hunter was married to Terri Irwin, who he wed in 1992.

Together, the couple have two children; Bindi and Robert.

How did Steve Irwin die? How old was he when he died?

Steve tragically died on the 4 September 2006 while filming a new documentary on the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland.

He was only 44 at the time.

While snorkelling, the team found an eight-foot stingray who struck out at Steve after it was believed it mistaked Steve’s shadow for a tiger shark.

Steve was pierced by a stingray barb.

The cameraman who was with him at the time of his death, Justin Lyons, said of the tragic moments: “I had the camera on, I thought this is going to be a great shot, and all of a sudden it propped on its front and started stabbing wildly, hundreds of strikes in a few seconds.

“I panned with the camera as the stingray swam away and I didn’t know it had caused any damage.”

He continued: “It was only when I panned the camera back that I saw Steve standing in a huge pool of blood that I realised something had gone wrong.”

Steve had a two-inch wide injury over his heart with blood and fluid coming out of it as the team tried to get him back to the boat as soon as possible.

Mr Lyons said: “I was saying to him things like ‘think of your kids Steve, hang on, hang on, hang on’.”

The cameraman says Steve’s last words were: “I’m dying.”