Posted on 08/16/2005 12:04:38 PM PDT by ZULU
Opening today, the documentary Grizzly Man revisits the life and violent death of Timothy Treadwell, a controversial wildlife activist who spent 13 summers living among bears in the Alaskan wilderness.
Treadwell was discovered dead and partially eaten by one of his beloved grizzlies at his campsite in Katmai National Park in the fall of 2003. His girlfriend, Amie Huguenard, was also killed.
Using Treadwell's own dramatic video footage, the film tells the story of a controversial figure who put a history of drug and alcohol abuse behind him to devote his life to grizzlies. It was an obsession that cost Treadwell his life.
In the Werner Herzog-directed documentary, Treadwell is shown singing and reading poetry to grizzlies, calling them names like Mr. Chocolate, and even petting one on the nose.
Experts say Treadwell was an example of how not to behave around these animals.
Chuck Bartlebaugh, executive director of the Center for Wildlife Information, based in Missoula, Montana, describes Treadwell, a self-styled "kind warrior," as "irresponsible." Though he had a "great heart" and a "loving personality," Bartlebaugh said, Treadwell never should have done what he did.
Bartlebaugh, who advised Treadwell on his conduct around wild bears, said, "Tim agreed with us and the superintendent of Katmai National Park to no longer approach, stress, or harass the bears. But he misled [us]."
Bartlebaugh says Treadwell's decision to ignore this advice was influenced by his aim to become known as a "bear whisperer."
Treadwell clearly believed he had a special bond with the animals. In a letter to one of his sponsors in 2003 he wrote: "My transformation complete—a fully accepted wild animal—brother to these bears."
Killer Bear
Weeks later he was killed, and by one of the bears he so adored. "The Park Service knew and had monitored the bear, and Tim knew it too," Bartlebaugh said.
Treadwell claimed to have identified 21 vocalizations and body languages in grizzlies. If that's the case, says Bartlebaugh, the one he didn't recognize was the most important: "It was the one that says, Leave me alone."
Katmai park rangers shot the thousand-pound (450-kilogram) male responsible for Treadwell and Huguenard's deaths after their bodies were found. A second, younger bear was also killed when it became aggressive.
Bear biologist Lance Craighead says the deaths of Treadwell and his girlfriend created a lot of bad publicity for bears. But, he says, the New York-born Treadwell also inspired people with his message that grizzly bears should be protected and preserved.
"Treadwell did more good than harm," said Craighead, director of the Craighead Environmental Research Institute in Bozeman, Montana. "He sure reached a lot of schoolchildren—he spent most of his winters talking to schoolkids about bears."
Treadwell "pushed the envelope" when it came to taking risks, Craighead said, which may have encouraged others to do the same.
"I think he was trying to make the bears habituated to him so that they knew him personally," the biologist added. "People have done that with a lot of animals, such as gorillas and chimpanzees. It works, up to a point. But there's always likely to be a 'bad bear' that you might just run into."
Treadwell "must have had thousands of bear encounters. Finally he had one which went wrong," he said.
Craighead says he has managed to avoid hairy moments of his own during fieldwork in grizzly country.
"I don't get close enough to touch them, for one thing," he said. "I also carry bear spray [generally a pepper-based repellent] with me. I think it would have been a good thing if [Treadwell] had had it in his tent, even if he didn't want to carry it around."
Bear Maulings
Treadwell isn't alone in getting too close to grizzlies.
The Center for Wildlife Information reports increased incidences of grizzly bear maulings due to human misadventure. U.S and Canadian national parks such as Yellowstone, Glacier, Jasper, and Banff have been forced to hire extra rangers to keep bear-friendly visitors back.
In Yellowstone National Park visitors are asked to stay at least a hundred yards (90 meters) from bears.
Parkgoers are warned that if they get within a bear's "individual distance," the bear might charge. And the animals are powerful enough to kill with a single blow.
"Two years ago we counted 200 people standing within five feet [one and a half meters] of grizzly bears in Yellowstone," Bartlebaugh, of the Center for Wildlife Information, said. "Those bears are now dead."
Some had to be culled because they became too aggressive after having been habituated to humans, some of whom fed the bears, he said. Others were hit by cars or shot by hunters who found themselves threatened.
"If people had not habituated those bears, they would still be around, helping the recovery of the population," Bartlebaugh added.
"We as humans have to be diligent about being around these beautiful animals. You don't move away because the bear is going to kill you. You move away because you want the bear to be wild."
Too bad. They're interfering with natural selection and the awarding of more Darwin Awards. Grizzly bears CAN improve the gene pool by eliminating stupid genes and liberal genes.
Me, I wouldn't get closer than 100 yeards to a grizz. That's when my rifle is dead on.
This former idiot...now a piece of bear $hi+ somewhere...deserved what he got. As Bugs Bunny would say, whatta maroon!!!
A tiger is a tiger.
A bear is a bear.
A liberal is an idiot.
The guy was a freakin' idiot. People like that get the idea in their heads that they can really commune with wild animals. He died for that mistake.
That doesn't mean that he deserved it.
I feel about the same about him as I do when I read about a guy who died when their parachute didn't open and he splashed himself in a cornfield. Why anyone would have sympathy for this moron is beyond me.
Click the Pic
Well, I guess ending up as some bear's dinner is better than a bad trip? Or is it?
Yes he did. If you are walking down the street and get mugged, you probably did not deserve it. If you go into the heart of crime alley in any big city and attempt to interact with the animals there, you deserve what you get.
this useful idiot is in the same ballpark as the stupid girl laying down in front of the bulldozer.
Good for a chuckle anyway! Definitely not worth a second thought.
Wanted to be a bear whisperer and ended up a bear fart.
This moron goes into their habitat and gets eaten, so they kill the bear. WTF? If the guy had never been there the bear would have been fine. The bear is doing what thousands of years of evolution has taught him to do. Stay alive.
I hear the salmon runs were very slow this year. This bear found an alternative food source and used it. It almost seems like people don't realize these are wild animals not the singing Baloo's we see in Disney movies that have feelings and tell jokes.
I went to see Ron "Tater Salad" White last weekend.
One of his new jokes was: Wouldn't it be funny if this guy's father had told him all his life that "you'll never be sh**".
Brought down the house.
Didn't he live in Malibu?
Oh, man ... that's cold! (And pretty funny)
Yogi bump! ;o)
It took a f---ing expert to figure that out?
Something tells me he wasn't whispering at the end there. Probably wound up as a "bear screaming-his-head-off-er"...
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