posted September 14, 2006 12:45 AM         

SYDNEY, Australia —At least 10 stingrays have been killed since "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin was fatally injured by one of the fish, an official said yesterday, prompting a spokesman for the late TV star's animal charity to urge people not take revenge on the animals.

Irwin died last week after a stingray barb pierced his chest as he recorded a show off the Great Barrier Reef.

Stingray bodies since have been discovered on two beaches in Queensland state on Australia's eastern coast. Two were discovered yesterday with their tails lopped off, state fisheries department official Wayne Sumpton said.

Sumpton said fishermen who inadvertently catch the diamond-shaped rays sometimes cut off their tails to avoid being stung, but the practice is uncommon. Stingrays often are caught in fishing nets by mistake and should be returned to the sea, Sumpton said.

Michael Hornby, the executive director of Irwin's Wildlife Warriors conservation group, said he was concerned the rays were being hunted and killed in retaliation for Irwin's death.

He said killing stingrays was "not what Steve was about.''

"We are disgusted and disappointed that people would take this sort of action to hurt wildlife," he said.

Stingrays are usually shy, unobtrusive fish that rummage the sea bottom for food or burrow into the sand.

They have a serrated spine up to 20 cm long on their tails, which they can lash when stepped on or otherwise frightened.

The spines emit toxins that can kill many small creatures and cause excruciating pain. Most people who are stung by a stingray generally suffer painful, non-lethal wounds in their feet or lower legs.

Irwin's case was thought to be only the third recorded fatal stingray attack in Australia, Reuters reported.

posted September 14, 2006 12:45 AM         

Stingrays are strange-looking but normally shy creatures whose defences include poisonous, serrated barbs in their tails.

At least 35 species of stingrays swim in the tropical waters of Australia's Great Barrier Reef, where television personality Steve Irwin died yesterday when he was stabbed in the heart by a ray's barb.

Experts called it a freak occurrence. They said the triangular-shaped rays are usually unobtrusive, gliding through the water, rummaging on the sea bottom for food or burrowing into the sand. But when stepped on or otherwise frightened, they deploy spines up to 25 centimetres long with breadknife-like serrations as a defence mechanism.

"If it's spooked by someone stepping on it or swimming too closely over it, frightening it, the tail raises involuntarily," said Victoria Brims, a marine life expert at OceanWorld, an aquarium in Sydney, Australia.

The spines emit toxins that can kill small creatures and cause excruciating pain in humans. Few people die from the poison, but the spines can badly tear flesh and the wounds are prone to infections.