Experts reacting to the tragic death of Australia’s “Crocodile Hunter” Steve Irwin. have stated that deaths from the barb of a stingray are almost unheard of.

Dr Bryan Fry, deputy director of the Australian Venom Research Unit at the University of Melbourne, said stingray venom was “extraordinarily painful”.

“If he was conscious he would have been in agony,” Fry said,

Fry said stingray venom was a defensive weapon similar to that in stone fish but was not lethal. Serrated barbs on the stingray’s tail would have delivered the fatal injury, he said.

“It’s not the going in, it’s the coming out,” Fry said.

“They have these deep serrations which tear and render the flesh as it comes out,” he said.

The barbs on stingray’s tails can measure up to 20 cm.

Clinical toxicologist Dr Geoff Isbister said little is known about stingray venom but agreed the physical trauma associated with the wound would have killed Irwin.

“What happened to Steve Irwin is like being stabbed in the heart,” Isbister said.

Injuries caused by stingrays are relatively common but fatalities are extremely rare, with experts saying there are only one or two known cases in recorded Australian history.

There have only been two recorded fatalities in the last Century in Australia, one death in the 40’s in Melbourne, and the death of a young aboriginal boy.

“The majority of stingray injuries in Australia result from people stepping on them in shallow water and getting a stingray barb in the ankle,” Isbister said.

These barbs on their long tails allow the placid stingrays to protect themselves from predators, such as killer whales and sharks.

“I have never heard of an unprovoked attack from a stingray,” Connell said. “Such attacks usually only happen when the ray is under severe stress,” he said.