Is the "live among bears" guy that was killed and eaten to be admired or not?

astro · October 8, 2003, 1:29pm

I can’t decide whether this guy was a self indulgent burn out or some kind of eco-visionary. It does seem, however, that you shouldn’t be screwing around with animals that consider you one of the building blocks of their food pyramid.

Bears Kill Pair Who Lived Among Them - Malibu adventurer and his girlfriend, both fatally mauled, were camping among bears in Alaska’s Katmai National Park.

Every summer for the last 13 years, Timothy Treadwell fled Malibu for the wilds of Alaska, where he lived among dozens of grizzly bears. He photographed the bears, slept near them and crawled into their dens when they were off fishing for salmon.

In the words of one friend, “he became feral.”

On Monday, Treadwell, 46, and his girlfriend, Amie Huguenard, 37, both of Malibu, were found dead in the remote Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska, the victims of a bear mauling, according to the National Park Service and Alaska state troopers. …

“He died doing what he loved,” Palovak said. “If he had to pick a way to do it, it would be that way. He always knew they were wild animals and he accepted them on those terms.”

She said Treadwell — who was always unarmed — had never wanted others to do what he did.

“He recognized that he had a special gift or was lucky. A lot of people said he shouldn’t do what he was doing or it was crazy. But he proved them wrong for a long, long time,” Palovak said.

Park service officials said they had long feared that Treadwell would be killed by a bear.

“We all had grave concerns about what Timothy Treadwell was doing,” Fowler said.

Tom Smith, a research ecologist with the Alaska Science Center of the U.S. Geological Service, visited Katmai several years ago and watched Treadwell interact with bears.

“He was breaking every park rule that there was, in terms of distance to the bears, harassing wildlife and interfering with natural processes,” Smith said Tuesday. “Right off the bat, his personal mission was at odds with the park service. He had been warned repeatedly. It’s a tragic thing, but it’s not unpredictable.”

Balle_M · October 8, 2003, 1:42pm

Well, now we know that not only do they, but WHAT a bear sh*ts in the woods.

Drastic · October 8, 2003, 1:45pm

Awhile back, Fark pointed an article out on this fellow who was demonstrating that his yogic techniques enabled him to be in shark-infested waters with no danger of being bitten. The article was, of course, about a shark taking a big chunk out of his leg during this demonstration.

I felt a little bad about myself for being grimly amused by it.

I have a pretty similar reaction to this story.

Dinsdale · October 8, 2003, 2:17pm

All I can say is, combine this with the tiger attack in Vegas, and it looks pretty clear that the revolution has begun.

I thought that squirrel was eyeing me funny this morning…

DeadlyAccurate · October 8, 2003, 2:27pm

Good God, Dinsdale, you’re right! There was a squirrel on my windowsill this morning. I thought he was just looking for food, but I bet he was looking for a way in.

Bar the doors and get out the guns. The only way to survive is to stick together.

lachesis · October 8, 2003, 2:36pm

holy crap! you mean the squirrel i saw this morning running along an overhead powerline wasn’t just using it to cross a busy road – he was actually an advance scout for sending the East Coast into another power-outage-induced tailspin???

Binarydrone · October 8, 2003, 2:39pm

Looks like the dolphins may be getting in on the revolution as well.

Earthworm_Jim · October 8, 2003, 2:40pm

The discovery channel occasionally airs a kind of self-made documentary this guy did a few years back. He seemed pretty well aware that he was never far from danger.

He took some chances, and got himself killed. But, we’re all going to die anyway, and he lived his life the way he wanted to live it. How many of us can say the same?

So, I say yes: he’s to be admired.

Kalhoun · October 8, 2003, 2:45pm

He sucks. He made the animals uncomfortable in their environment. I feel bad for guys who get mauled by bears or tigers, but goddamnitanyway, let the animals be what they are and get out of their faces. Pictures from a distance is as close as anyone should ever get…unless you’re doing something directly related to saving them, such as killing a poacher or artifically inseminating them.

Isabelle · October 8, 2003, 2:49pm

Squirrel joke is actually funny…yep it’s a revolution… and it wasn’t so much the “self indulgent burn out” that the bear took exception to as much as his girlfriend saying, “I got a fur coat just like that one back home”…

World_Eater · October 8, 2003, 3:00pm

Do bears ever fight to the death?

If so, he was just one of the family.

lieu · October 8, 2003, 3:07pm

This gets my vote as to what pissed the bear off.

NurseCarmen · October 8, 2003, 3:12pm

I admire him for living his life the way he wanted, and doing things that so few humans would do. But he’s an idiot for interfering with wildlife. He’s on the same level of “Roy”. I enjoy going deep into the bush, gatting away from it all, and keeping in touch with my feral self. I’ve managed to do that without interfering much with the local fauna and flora. Keeping a small “foot print” is how nature should be experienced, and this guy was doing a clog dance.

World_Eater · October 8, 2003, 3:16pm

Now this just sounds bizarre.

lieu · October 8, 2003, 3:39pm

Also sounds illegal in fourteen states.

MrMyth · October 8, 2003, 4:08pm

Yes, the revolution has begun.

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_827010.html?menu=news.quirkies

And this time, it will not be televised. Except maybe on Animal Planet.

Cyn · October 8, 2003, 5:35pm

I was watching a show in the breakroom at work about a man crawling in a wombat hole to “see if anyone is home”.
Home Invasion! That wombat is legally justified in defending his home and loved ones and I was expecting that fool of a cameraman to suffer a wombat bite to the @ss at any moment.
I was rooting for the wombat.
Being mauled to death by bears doesn’t seem like an ideal and noble death to me, but to each his own. IMHO, I don’t find it admirable.

Ludovic · October 8, 2003, 7:59pm

yarrr, it has begun. And the only one who can save the town is this old sea…

Chefguy · October 8, 2003, 8:51pm

They weren’t just mauled, they were mostly eaten. The plane that flew in to find them spotted one of the bears on top of the kill and some of the meat had already been cached (bears bury what they don’t eat, so they can come back later for it). When approached, the bear became aggressive and was killed. Then a second bear appeared, probably the sibling to the first, became aggressive and was also killed.

So now we have two grizzlies dead for doing what grizzlies do, and two humans dead for doing what humans should not. This self-proclaimed “bear expert” put himself, another person, and the animals in harm’s way in order to show that he was ‘special’. When warned about his activities by rangers at one point, he replied that “it would be an honor to end up as bear scat”.

Congratulations, moron.

jimpatro · October 8, 2003, 9:14pm

I bet as he was being eaten alive he wished to God he had never ever seen a bear in his life.
Now on the count of interfering with nature, I can’t buy into it.
Man is as much a part of nature as wildlife.