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."
At point blank range, with a .25 automatic pistol. In the belly.
This guy and his doper girlfriend were considered eco-fools by the wildlife community. Their actions are viewed totally harmful by wildlife professionals.
Having just returned from an Alaskan fishing trip I can tell you the locals take the bear threat seriously. We never went out fishing on the river without an armed guide. I can post a picture of a bear attack if any are interested and will provide instrution on how to do the posting of pictures.
Bears will be, well, bears.
The sounds of the bear chomping on this poor soul and his girlfriend are horrendous I heard. Does anyone know if Herzog uses these sounds in the film?
but his actions did EXACTLY the opposite.....
Treadwell did more harm than good....
don't people realize that if you want to protect wildlife, you make sure they stay wild.......
if bears would associate people and dogs with harm, they would never come near human beings and they would thus be able to live long lives.....
To bad, but once a bear has the taste for human meat you can't take a chance it won't develope a preference.
I wonder if this guy and his girl friend were vegetarians? I've been trying to collect data on my theory that bears and mountain lions seem to be attracted to herbivores over carnivores. It's based on some advice given to me from some old high country residents.
basically, what I read was he was yelling at his girlfriend to "do" something while he was being eaten......
I understand this bear whisperer gig was not his first choice. Among the other occupations he considered but did not pursue for some reason or other, were 'Shark Whisperer' and 'Nitroglycerin Juggler'.
Treadwell was a stupid man. He professed to love the bears, but his stupidity killed himself and them---two dead people and two dead bears.
Or perhaps the one that says, "I'm starving, what's for lunch?"
There's that old, well, really old joke about the time Alaska became a state. A Texan, distraught that he was no longer
a resident of the biggest state in the Union heads up North.
He was told, to become a real Alaskan, you have to drink a bottle of whiskey in one gulp, wrestle a grizzly
bear barehanded and make love to an Eskimo woman all in one night.
So, he buys a fifth of whiskey, downs it in one gulp, and then then goes to find a bear. A couple of hours later
the would-be Alaskan stumbles through the door, his clothes shredded and his body covered with cuts and bruises, and
asks, "Where's that Eskimo woman you want me to wrestle?"
This guy was killed while tent camping in a place he called the Grizzly Maze, a brushy area near a salmon run that was overrun with brownies due to some other nearby runs being slower than usual. There was no reason to kill the bear, as the area is not camped, only viewed by fly-in bear watching groups that don't typically go ashore.
Treadwell was a dope whose actions killed two wild bears that were no threat to humans. The book about it, also calle Grizzly Maze, is okay but not worth buying. I read it in about 90 minutes while sitting at Borders.
My point is that if the guy wasn't there in the first place, the bear would probably still be eating fish and berries.
I don't know what they were. It sounds like an interesting hypothesis.
This guy was killed while tent camping in a place he called the Grizzly Maze, a brushy area near a salmon run that was overrun with brownies due to some other nearby runs being slower than usual. There was no reason to kill the bear, as the area is not camped, only viewed by fly-in bear watching groups that don't typically go ashore.
Treadwell was a dope whose actions killed two wild bears that were no threat to humans. The book about it, also calle Grizzly Maze, is okay but not worth buying. I read it in about 90 minutes while sitting at Borders.
He needed one of Troy's Grizzy Suits!
SNORT!
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