Steve Irwin was truly a rare breed of human. Liked by virtually all who ever watched his work, the charismatic Australian dedicated his life to improving the welfare of animals all over the world, as well as educating and entertaining the rest of us while he was doing it.

His tragic death at the age of 44 in 2006 came as a shock despite his often hazardous line of work. Here was a man who wrestled crocodiles, swam with sharks, and handled venomous snakes regularly, and yet the incident that killed him – involving a stingray – was wholly unexpected.

Needless to say, Irwin’s untimely passing prompted an outpour of tributes from his legion of followers around the world. Yet there was some small solace to be taken in the fact that the animal hero died doing what he loved.

Indeed, according to reports, Irwin was so committed to his work that he had a rule in place so that the cameras would never stop rolling, even if he found himself in grave danger.

According to the Daily Mirror, Tommy Donovan, Irwin’s IMDb biographer, once said: “He tells his camera crew to always be filming. If he needs help he will ask for it. Even if he is eaten by a shark or croc, the main thing he wants is for it be filmed. If he died he would be sad if no one got it on tape.”

So it was that the fatal incident that played out near Australia’s Great Barrier Reef on September 4, 2006, was recorded. The story goes that filming for Irwin’s show Ocean’s Deadliest had been postponed due to bad weather, and so the conservationist had decided to film a segment involving stingrays for his daughter Bindi’s show Bindi the Jungle Girl.

In 2007, authorities revealed that they had destroyed all existing copies of the film except one. That one was entrusted to Terri Irwin, Steve’s widow, who revealed in 2018: “I’ve never watched the actual footage. Why would I? I know the circumstances of my husband’s passing.”