Video footage has revealed that Steve Irwin pulled out of his heart the poisonous stingray barb that killed him moments before he lost consciousness.
"It shows that Steve came over the top of the ray and the tail came up, and spiked him here (in the chest)," manager John Stainton told reporters after watching the footage.
"He pulled it out and the next minute he's gone. The cameraman had to shut down," he said. "It's a very hard thing to watch because you're actually witnessing somebody die ... it's terrible."
Irwin, 44, who won worldwide acclaim as TV's khaki-clad "Crocodile Hunter", was shooting footage for a new wildlife project he was making with daughter Bindi, when he was attacked.
Irwin's body was being flown home on Tuesday from Cairns. No funeral plans have been announced although State Premier Peter Beattie said Irwin would be afforded a state funeral if his family approved.
Police said there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding Irwin's death and he had not appeared to have intimidated the animal.
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
"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."
"He was and remains the ultimate wildlife warrior," said fellow Australian Oscar-winner Russell 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.
