# Is the "live among bears" guy that was killed and eaten to be admired or not?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-live-among-bears-guy-that-was-killed-and-eaten-to-be-admired-or-not/206281
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [October 8, 2003, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-live-among-bears-guy-that-was-killed-and-eaten-to-be-admired-or-not/206281 "2003-10-08T13:29:31Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2003, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-live-among-bears-guy-that-was-killed-and-eaten-to-be-admired-or-not/206281/1 "2003-10-08T13:29:31Z")
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.](http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-bear8oct08,1,4886374.story?coll=la-home-leftrail)
> [@](#):
>
> 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.”
---
### Author:  [@Balle\_M](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balle_M)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2003, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-live-among-bears-guy-that-was-killed-and-eaten-to-be-admired-or-not/206281/2 "2003-10-08T13:42:39Z")
Well, now we know that not only do they, but WHAT a bear sh\*ts in the woods.
---
### Author:  [@Drastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drastic)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2003, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-live-among-bears-guy-that-was-killed-and-eaten-to-be-admired-or-not/206281/3 "2003-10-08T13:45:14Z")
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.
---
### Author:  [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2003, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-live-among-bears-guy-that-was-killed-and-eaten-to-be-admired-or-not/206281/4 "2003-10-08T14:17:35Z")
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…
---
### Author:  [@DeadlyAccurate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeadlyAccurate)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2003, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-live-among-bears-guy-that-was-killed-and-eaten-to-be-admired-or-not/206281/5 "2003-10-08T14:27:31Z")
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.
---
### Author:  [@lachesis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lachesis)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2003, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-live-among-bears-guy-that-was-killed-and-eaten-to-be-admired-or-not/206281/6 "2003-10-08T14:36:29Z")
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???
---
### Author:  [@Binarydrone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Binarydrone)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2003, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-live-among-bears-guy-that-was-killed-and-eaten-to-be-admired-or-not/206281/7 "2003-10-08T14:39:18Z")
Looks like the [dolphins](http://www.theonion.com/onion3630/dolphins_evolve_thumbs.html) may be getting in on the revolution as well.
---
### Author:  [@Earthworm\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earthworm_Jim)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2003, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-live-among-bears-guy-that-was-killed-and-eaten-to-be-admired-or-not/206281/8 "2003-10-08T14:40:09Z")
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.
---
### Author:  [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2003, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-live-among-bears-guy-that-was-killed-and-eaten-to-be-admired-or-not/206281/9 "2003-10-08T14:45:32Z")
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.
---
### Author:  [@Isabelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isabelle)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2003, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-live-among-bears-guy-that-was-killed-and-eaten-to-be-admired-or-not/206281/10 "2003-10-08T14:49:37Z")
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”…
---
### Author:  [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2003, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-live-among-bears-guy-that-was-killed-and-eaten-to-be-admired-or-not/206281/11 "2003-10-08T15:00:49Z")
Do bears ever fight to the death?
If so, he was just one of the family.
---
### Author:  [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2003, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-live-among-bears-guy-that-was-killed-and-eaten-to-be-admired-or-not/206281/12 "2003-10-08T15:07:03Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Kalhoun \*
> \*\*… or artifically inseminating them. \*\*
This gets my vote as to what pissed the bear off.
---
### Author:  [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2003, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-live-among-bears-guy-that-was-killed-and-eaten-to-be-admired-or-not/206281/13 "2003-10-08T15:12:23Z")
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.
---
### Author:  [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2003, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-live-among-bears-guy-that-was-killed-and-eaten-to-be-admired-or-not/206281/14 "2003-10-08T15:16:37Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by NurseCarmen \*
> **I enjoy going deep into the bush, gatting away from it all, and keeping in touch with my feral self**
Now _this_ just sounds bizarre. 😛
---
### Author:  [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2003, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-live-among-bears-guy-that-was-killed-and-eaten-to-be-admired-or-not/206281/15 "2003-10-08T15:39:01Z")
Also sounds illegal in fourteen states.
---
### Author:  [@MrMyth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrMyth)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2003, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-live-among-bears-guy-that-was-killed-and-eaten-to-be-admired-or-not/206281/16 "2003-10-08T16:08:49Z")
Yes, the revolution has begun.
[http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm\_827010.html?menu=news.quirkies](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.
---
### Author:  [@Cyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyn)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2003, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-live-among-bears-guy-that-was-killed-and-eaten-to-be-admired-or-not/206281/17 "2003-10-08T17:35:30Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Kalhoun \*
> \*\*He sucks. He made the animals uncomfortable in their environment. \*\*
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.
---
### Author:  [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2003, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-live-among-bears-guy-that-was-killed-and-eaten-to-be-admired-or-not/206281/18 "2003-10-08T19:59:37Z")
yarrr, it has begun. And the only one who can save the town is this old sea…
---
### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2003, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-live-among-bears-guy-that-was-killed-and-eaten-to-be-admired-or-not/206281/19 "2003-10-08T20:51:01Z")
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.
---
### Author:  [@jimpatro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimpatro)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2003, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-live-among-bears-guy-that-was-killed-and-eaten-to-be-admired-or-not/206281/20 "2003-10-08T21:14:55Z")
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.
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-live-among-bears-guy-that-was-killed-and-eaten-to-be-admired-or-not/206281.md?page=2)