Docile Stingray Rarely a Killer

Of the 480 species of stingray found in the world's waters, about half grow razor-sharp spines which are often barbed or serrated.

When rays are armed with spines they usually have more than one, each in effect an elongated, hardened scale that lies flat along the fish's tail as it swims or nestles on the sea floor. When the fish feels threatened, a defence mechanism flicks the spine up and whips it round, delivering what can be a devastating blow.

Despite their ability to inflict mortal wounds, stingrays are regarded as docile creatures and deaths from attacks are exceptionally rare. Of the 1,500 wounds inflicted by stingrays in the US each year, nearly all are from swimmers brushing past them or accidentally stepping on them.

While the thrust of the spine is by far the most dangerous part of a stingray's defences, the spine is also coated in a venom that can kill tissue and cause inflammation.

Speaking after Steve Irwin's death, Dr Bryan Fry, of the Australian venom research unit at the University of Melbourne, said: "Stingrays only sting in defence - they're not aggressive so the animal must have felt threatened. It didn't sting out of aggression, it stung out of fear."

The last recorded death from a stingray in Australia was in 1945, when a soldier was struck in the heart while swimming in a seawater pool near Melbourne. In 1938, a woman was killed by a similar strike.

Stingrays are most common in warmer waters but they can be found in British waters. According to Doug Herdson at the National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth, Devon, three species of stingray have been spotted off Britain: the common stingray, the eagle ray and the devil ray, an extremely rare creature that can grow to five metres.