I never watched his shows; but from what I’ve heard, read and seen on the news, there was a method to his madness. Reportedly, he believed that conservationism would never catch on long term as a movement unless there was a push to teach kids to have a love of nature and involve them in its preservation at an early age. A grass roots movement, if you will. To that end, he used an extreme degree of showmanship to get them to watch him as well as to get them excited about the issues and about nature and animals. Because let’s face it: kids don’t like watching traditional documentaries with the deep voice narrating with great solemnity about the mating rituals of the red-chested cockatoo of the West Indies; it’s dry material to sit through. And it seemed to have worked as dr. pepper has already attested to.
So, I think that he understood that he was taking great risks with his life; but that it was a risk worth taking for a cause that he, apparently, felt passionately about.
I think that was the original intent of her post. Of course, you’re not glad that he’s dead nor are you trying to gloat over his family and, yes, he did take risks in his occupation. However, to come out and say, after a man’s passing, that “well, if you play with fire, you’ll get burned” or “well, it’s not surprising, he did provoke animals” or “well, he deserved it because he did this and that” is kind of inappropriate and seems to serve little purpose except to shit on a deceased individual.