Hundreds Mourn 'Croc Hunter' At Zoo

Hundreds came to the Australia Zoo Tuesday to place flowers and notes at a makeshift shrine to "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin, who was killed Monday by a stingray. The zoo reopened, with one manager saying it's what Irwin would have wanted.

Khaki work shirts like the kind Irwin wore were draped outside the gate, where visitors lined up to write messages on them.

His death managed to unite Australian politicians. Prime Minister John Howard called Irwin "a genuine, one-off, remarkable Australian." His opposition counterpart, Kim Beazley, said Irwin was "a great Aussie bloke."

Irwin's friend, actor Russell Crowe, called him "the ultimate wildlife warrior."

The Irwin family has been offered a state funeral, but has not announced a decision on whether to accept. The decision is expected within the next day, Phil Willmington of Nine News Australia said on CBS News' The Early Show.

Dramatic videotape of Irwin's last moments shows him pulling from his chest the poisonous stingray barb that killed him, officials said Tuesday, as tributes poured in for the beloved naturalist famed for getting dangerously close to deadly beasts.

John Stainton, Irwin's manager who was among the television crew on the reef, said the fatal blow that struck the TV personality and conservationist was caught on videotape. He described viewing the footage as having the "terrible" experience of watching a friend die.

"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," Stainton told reporters in Cairns, where Irwin's body was taken for an autopsy.

Police said there were no suspicious circumstances in the death of Irwin, who was stabbed in the chest on Monday while swimming with a stingray while filming a television program off Australia's Great Barrier Reef, and no evidence he provoked the animal.

The tape of the death of the man known by TV audiences worldwide for his infectious enthusiasm in the series "The Crocodile Hunter" was secured by Queensland state police as evidence for a coroner's inquiry — a standard procedure in high-profile deaths or those caused by other than natural causes.

"It's a real freak. Very seldom do people get actually stung by stingrays and having a fatality is more than rarer than that," Jack Schneider, animal curator and director of education of the Maritime Aquarium in Norwalk, Conn., said on The Early Show. "Stingrays don't shoot these things like a harpoon. They have to come in physical contact with the animal or the person with whom they are stabbing. And they have to hit their tails right up to the person or the animal."

Irwin, 44, was shooting footage for a project he was making with daughter Bindi, 8, for airing next year in the United States when he was fatally stung off the north Queensland coast.

"He really is a true professional and nobody knows animals like Steve and how to get the best out of them," Craig Adams, who went filming with Irwin four days before he died, said on The Early Show.

Late Tuesday, Irwin's body was returned to the Sunshine Coast, where his American wife Terri, Bindi and their son, Bob, almost 3, were keeping a low profile at their home near Australia Zoo, Irwin's wildlife park.

Australia's Parliament interrupted its normal scheduled so leaders could pay tribute to Irwin.

"He was a genuine, one-off, remarkable Australian individual and I am distressed at his death," Howard said.

"He was not only a great Aussie bloke, he was determined to instill his passion for the environment and its inhabitants in everybody he met," Beazley said.

Though Australia Zoo was open Tuesday, but the mood was somber and most visitors were drawn to a makeshift shrine of bouquets and handwritten condolence messages that emerged at the gate.

"Mate, you made the world a better place," read one poster left at the gate. "Steve, our hero, our legend, our wildlife warrior," read another. Khaki shirts — a trademark of Irwin — were laid out for people to sign.

Stingray experts have speculated that the animal that killed Irwin — who rose to fame by getting dangerously close to crocodiles, snakes and other beasts — probably felt trapped between the cameraman and the television star.

Queensland Police Superintendent Michael Keating said there was no evidence Irwin threatened or intimidated the stingray, a normally placid species that only deploys its poisonous tail spines as a defense.

Stainton said Irwin was in his element in bushland, but the sea posed threats the star wasn't used to.

"If ever he was going to go, we always said it was going to be the ocean," Stainton said. "On land he was agile, quick-thinking, quick-moving — and the ocean puts another element there that you have no control over."

Irwin was propelled to global fame after his TV shows were shown around the world on the Discovery Channel, which announced plans for a marathon screening of Irwin's work and a wildlife fund in his name.

Experts differed on the number of human deaths caused by stingrays — from up to 17 to just 3 — though all agreed that they were extremely rare.

Australian news Web sites reported being choked by heavy traffic seeking new on Irwin, newspapers devoted their front and several inside pages to the story and some of Irwin's high-profile friends expressed their sadness.

"He was and remains the ultimate wildlife warrior," said Crowe. "He touched my heart, I believed in him, I'll miss him. I loved him and I'll be there for his family," Crowe said in New York, Australian media reported.