"Enthusiast" = "Bear chow on the hoof."
Posted on 09/02/2009 10:18:29 AM PDT by jazusamo
Alaska is a land of contrasts. Thirty minutes in a bush plane will transport a visitor to another world, somewhere over the rainbow-trout streams. Glaciers of turquoise ice float next to forests in this wilderness. Bear country, as nature intended -- and then altered by man.
It is a fitting place for eccentric bear enthusiast Charlie Vandergaw to play by his own rules.
"That's what I like about Alaska, because I can live like I want to live. Fish or hunt, and you don't have to answer to anyone out here. You're not controlled by other people," Vandergaw said.
But he does need to answer to the grizzlies. They are among the largest predators walking the planet, quietly moving through the last remnants of wild nature -- and into Vandergaw's imagination.
"I think I'm mesmerized by grizzly bears. I love the black bears, but there's just something about a grizzly bear that is hypnotic to me," he said.
By anyone's standard, Charlie Vandergaw lives a life less ordinary. The 71-year-old retired science teacher from Anchorage has spent the last two decades in the remote Alaskan bush where, by his own choice, his closest neighbors are animals powerful enough to kill him with a swipe of their 5-inch claws.
"I got started on this innocent enough. I was living out here alone and they became friends. A couple different ones actually came in and sought my friendship and once I had that happen to me I was lost," Vandergaw said.
Vandergaw has admittedly succumbed to the spell of bears. He's carved a life for himself out of pine trees and dirt, constructing a cabin he calls "Bear Haven," along with a few other outpost buildings. Otherwise, his remaining 40 acres are untouched.
(Video and pics at link)
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
I have bird feeders. Don't like the way those chickadees eye me.
Hah!
A year or so ago my MIL wanted to start feeding a couple squirrels in the back, I said it’s not a good idea.
She and the wife got some peanuts in the shells and put out, in a few weeks we had peanut shells and squirrels all over the front and back yard.
The peanuts mysteriously disappeared and the squirrels went elsewhere. :-)
I had to hang the feeders from thin, plastic-coated cables to thwart the squirrels.
"Enthusiast" = "Bear chow on the hoof."
lunchmeat alert
Holding back the on-rushing train with a volleyball net ping!
Is he working on becoming transpecied?
Can he avoid taxes if he declares himself to be a bear?
Gloomy, an abandoned little bear, is rescued by Pitty (the little boy). At first, he is cute and cuddly, but becomes more wild as he grows up. Since bears do not become attached to people like dogs by nature, Gloomy attacks Pitty even though he is the owner. So Gloomy has blood on him from biting and/or scratching Pitty. The Gloomy with blood is called Chax Colony Edition.
Depends how much the bears donate to the Dhimmicrats.
Never, ever voluntarily give up your spot at the top of the food chain.
When he gets eaten, lets hope he isn’t praised and lauded by the idiots out there who think he’s communing with nature.
He’s choosing to ignore the basic fact that a Grizz is an apex predator and man is weak, slow prey bereft of claw and fang.
In other words, he is a fool.
i think I have heard this one before.
They won’t call him Scatman Charlie for nothing someday.........
...but the punchline is still funny.
Yes, check post #19, the article doesn’t mention Alaska DOW is after this idiot.
I think Timothy “Snackwell” is the funny part. Otherwise it’s a pretty pathetic story.
What is an “apex predator.”
From Wikipedia(yeah, I know, but it was handy and there’s little chance they’d screw this up with politics)
Apex predators (also known as alpha, super-, or top-level predators) is a predator that has virtually no predators of its own, residing at the top of its food chain.[1] Apex predator species are often at the end of long food chains, where they have a crucial role in maintaining the health of ecosystems.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apex_predator
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.