Bear Activist killed by Grizzly

Im not sure how many know about the background of this guy so, I pulled together some information.
For the past 13 years he has spent his summers in Alaska with the Grizzlies. Yes, he was a bit off some might say however, his thoughts regarding these bears and what he hoped to accomplish for their survival is a wonderful idea. He had a life of drugs and violence and when he survived that he decided to do somethign extraordinary with what gift he was given. I had watched a documentary on him that included some of the most stunning photographs I have ever seen of these bears, he wrote a highly acclaimed book on his life with these grizzlies, he spent the rest of the year with schoolchildren educating them on wildlife, and so much more.
If you didnt know about his work before, take a moment to look it over now, a moment to remember he died doing what he loved and knew it was a possibility, hopefully his images and education will do something he was trying for.

1999 article "....Summer Lifeguard"

Passionate preservationist acts as a summer lifeguard
March 21, 1999
Elisabeth Sherwin -- gizmo@ dcn.davis.ca.us

Timothy Treadwell spends up to four months a year living unarmed among the wild bears of Alaska. To most people, this would seem like a foolish, foolhardy way to spend a summer. After all, it would only take one whack of grizzly's paw and goodbye, Tim.
But he doesn't quite see it that way.
"I'm much more likely to be killed by an angry sport hunter than a bear," he said decisively. "I'm in more danger here in San Francisco," he added.
Treadwell, 36, was speaking to me by phone from a cheap hotel in San Francisco's Tenderloin, so I couldn't argue the point. He was on the road promoting his 1997 book, "Among Grizzlies: Living With Wild Bears in Alaska," which has just been issued in paperback by Ballantine.
His book describes how he became a bear fanatic and what it's like camping in the Alaskan wilds with only bears and a too-friendly fox for company.
Treadwell lets you know right away that he's not a scientist and that his life with bears comes from his heart, not his head. Still, I asked him if his hours and hours of on-site observation had added anything to bear science.
"Well," he said, "I've observed the social culture of grizzly bears, their hierarchy and their recognition of that hierarchy. I've seen one bear, Taffy, use a stick in a crude tool-like fashion to scratch her back. And, hmmm. What are some bear myths? Well, it's true that dominant males do sometimes kill cubs but it's overstated and blown out of proportion. There's no reason or advantage for it, the female will not then mate with the male. Oh, and bears do run downhill, very fast. Never run from a bear. They can be ferocious, dangerous animals but they are also shy, gentle giants."
I realized I was asking Treadwell the wrong question. He's not the guy to ask about the science of grizzlies, although he has observed them for longer periods of time and more intimately than most experts. The question to ask Treadwell is: Why? Why does he camp by himself with only bears for company in an undisclosed location so remote that he sometimes doesn't talk to another human being for more than a month?
"I'm their lifeguard," he says simply. "I'm there to keep the poachers and sport hunters away."
Since 1995 Treadwell has been a summer resident in the bear hierarchy and an expert bear observer. Patient, passive, he becomes part of the fabric of their lives.
(Oddly, he shaves and bathes every day while out in the field. It's a personal quirk. He just doesn't want to look like the stereotypical bear poacher or wild man of the mountains, even if there's no one there to see him.)
"Bears have 21 basic body signals," he said. He knows them all and knows how to deal with a bear that's upset, frightened, liable to do him injury. Frequently, he sings to them.
But he certainly doesn't recommend others do what he does.
"They've taught me how to be confident and calm in their presence and give them their personal space," he said. "This may sound egocentric but (I live with bears) like Ted Williams hits a baseball. I can't teach others how to do it."
Treadwell says he did bring a girlfriend out to the Alaska wilds and the bear habitat for about a two-month period in 1997.
"She started out in total fear and ended up loving the bears, too," he said.
He won't say exactly where the bear encampment is.
"Ecotourism will kill the bears," he said. "They don't have much of a future. They'll either be loved to death or shot to death."
In Alaska, it's legal to hunt grizzlies. About 1,200 a year are shot, about the same number are poached. Bear hunting is a multimillion dollar business. That's why Treadwell is such a threat; he doesn't want any bears killed and he has chased off hunters in the past. In fact, he takes a lot of heat from a variety of quarters - from scientists who scorn his methods, from hunters who mock his concern, from pilots and tradespeople in Alaska who object to his fervor.
Treadwell doesn't care. He has committed his life to wildlife preservation.
"You know how people accuse animal rights activists of liking animals better than people?" he asks me. "Well, these bears are so much better than people. They are better than us. They make up a perfect ecological system. They do no damage, they are amazing and beautiful. They are basically peaceful and I would have no life without them. I'm living as long and hard as I can for the good of the bears and preservation of their habitat, which is good for the environment and the planet. If Taffy were in danger, I would shield her with my body."
Treadwell and his co-author, Jewel Palovak, run an organization called Grizzly People devoted to education and preservation of the dwindling bear population. Treadwell spends much of his time, when he's not lifeguarding in Alaska, lecturing and educating kids about his passion. Grizzly People can be reached at P.O. Box 2872, Malibu CA 90265.


Grizzly People


Book Among Grizzlies: Living With Wild Bears in Alaska



Katmai bear lover Gets Alarmingly Close

Officials worry that man is promoting bruins as tame

By Elizabeth Manning / Anchorage Daily News

There was no mistaking Timothy Treadwell on the ''Late Show with David Letterman'' last Tuesday night (Feb. 20, 2001 and on re-runs).

He was the guy in the blue suit who looked like a shaggy-blond rock star and told viewers that the brown bears he lives with in Alaska are mainly harmless ''party animals'' out to have a good time.
When Letterman asked whether the bears might someday kill him, Treadwell said he feels safer living among Alaska's grizzlies than jogging through Central Park in New York City. Besides, he said, a fox yips a warning when bears come near his tent.

Treadwell, a self-taught bear expert from Malibu, Calif., has spent each of the past 12 summers living solo among Alaska's bears, mainly in Katmai National Park. He has given them names -- like Booble and Aunt Melissa -- and he's made it his mission, and living, to videotape bears close up and share his experiences. In the process, he has become one of Alaska's most controversial summer guests.
Despite misgivings, National Park Service officials have tolerated Treadwell, saying he has the potential to reach millions of people with his stunning footage of bears and his goofy though engaging television personality. But increasingly, park officials, bear biologists and other people have become concerned.
''At best he's misguided,'' said Deb Liggett, superintendent at Katmai and Lake Clark national parks. ''At worst he's dangerous. If Timothy models unsafe behavior, that ultimately puts bears and other visitors at risk.''
She worries that Treadwell might someday get mauled or killed by a bear. The park would have a tragedy on its hands and would probably have to destroy the bear.
Beyond that, Liggett and other officials worry that Treadwell is spreading the wrong message. During past television appearances, Treadwell has been shown so close to bears that he could touch them. He has been filmed crawling on his hands and knees singing as he approached a sow and two cubs. Another time, he chased a bear away from his camp with a stick.

''He tries to act like a bear,'' said Mark Wagner, chief of interpretation for Katmai and Lake Clark national parks. ''He thinks he's a bear. He lays down in their sleeping holes. I think that's a pretty scary message to give to the public. He's trying to make bears like a friend or pet instead of a wild animal.
''Is that how we want people looking at wildlife in a national park, like a dog or something?''
Treadwell did not return phone calls Friday and has refused many past interview requests. Likening himself to the late Southwestern writer Edward Abbey, Treadwell refuses to name the places where he works so they don't become overrun.
''I'm working for the bear,'' Treadwell said last summer in a brief phone interview. ''I just want to continue living with the animals. I'm documenting amazing things and looking out for a particular group of bears. If I screw up, the very bears I'm in love with will be killed.''
In his book ''Among Grizzlies,'' Treadwell says he was compelled to devote his life to saving grizzlies after nearly dying of a drug overdose and then experiencing several close scrapes with brown bears during his early trips to Alaska. Once, he said, he fell into a fetal position when a bear ran toward him. The bear just stepped over him, scraping its belly on his shoulder.
He says those experiences led him to quit drugs, study bears and start a nonprofit organization, called Grizzly People, that seeks to increase people's appreciation of bears.
Joel Bennett, Alaska director of Defenders of Wildlife, said Treadwell is effective at what he does. He described him as a ''bona fide naturalist'' and as someone who connects well with schoolchildren.
''He can take a segment of the classroom that couldn't care a whiff about bears, and he'll have them in the palm of his hand by the end of his talk,'' Bennett said.
Because of the educational work he does and his appearances on talk shows with Letterman and Rosie O'Donnell, Liggett said, the Park Service has chosen to work with Treadwell to tailor his messages rather than cite him or try to shut him out of the park.
Chuck Bartlebaugh, executive director of the Center for Wildlife Information in Montana, is also working with Treadwell so he'll give people sound advice for behavior around bears. He said this latest appearance with Letterman showed considerable improvement over past episodes because Treadwell didn't talk about getting close to bears and advised people not to feed them.
Tour guides who take visitors to the bays along the Alaska Peninsula where Treadwell lives each summer said their clients find him entertaining and well-informed.
''He gets to know the bears by name,'' said Dean Andrew of Andrew Airways in Kodiak. ''I've watched him talk to those bears. It's almost like they are big dogs. And I've seem them mind what he says, like a dog would mind you.''
Tom Smith, a bear biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, argues that Treadwell is contradicting the basic national park philosophy of leaving nature alone.
Smith said it appears Treadwell has habituated at least some bears to his presence. While that may be fairly easy to do among Katmai bears, accustomed to living in dense populations because of plentiful food, Smith worries that someone might try to duplicate Treadwell's behavior in places where grizzlies are more aggressive.
And as the bear-viewing industry grows in Alaska and as reality TV grows in popularity, some bear experts fear tourists might get the idea that bears aren't all that dangerous.
''I'm afraid it will be the next 'real TV' experience'' to try to get as close as possible to bears and put it on film, said Colleen Matt, regional refuge manager with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
''The worst part of it is that if somebody does get hurt, they will kill that bear,'' Smith said. ''What kind of tribute to the bear is that?''

What a sad ending for such a caring man and woman.

Wow. I guess that's a good way to go - doing what you're passionate about. Sad though.

He loved the bears so much.....that he chose to pretend they were equals.

Treadwell had a death he chose. Unfortunately, so did the bear. I can understand the man's passion, but I can't respect his disregard of the line between bears and humans.

Sad as it is, all I have to say is HAHAHAHAHA!!!! Sorry, you can care about bears to the end of your days, but LIVING with them is just dumb. Dumb, dumb, dumb. Humanizing friggin' BEARS, who are notoriously unpredictable, is just bad judgement. He should have been thinking about the safety of his family. One can support a cause without putting your loved ones in danger. Do I have to mention "self-taught bear expert?" To me, that says it all. I admire his passion, but I have no sympathy....this is a typical addictive personality type. Bears cured him of his drug habit, but the bears became his new addiction, and he ended up dying from it. He overdosed on bears, instead of drugs. Both scenarios involve him ignoring his and his family's best interests. What's the difference?

Montana-yep, a caring man, a sad end

little k-its a bad way to go if you're passionate about it or not but, he basically saw it coming so-heck, who are we to say?

Noddy-it is interesting that he knew the eventual death of both himself and the bear was a looming possibiity however, he took that chance, and it came true.
I also repected the mans passion and ability to overcome his past life and try to forge ahead and make a small difference in this world.
Liek I said though--he was a bit off, slightly askew from center but, who else would live with bears? You know? The fact that he was accepted(tolerated) by officials goes to show he walked the line of caring insanity.

cav-yep, you could laugh it off, you could say the bears were his new addiction. Rather than doing drugs and having a violent life he changed his addiction to something educational and of a good nature--whatever crazy line he walked to get there-I admire that he rose above such addictions and had a few years of a more simplistic life without violence. It is too bad his girlfriend was there also but, I would think that would be her choice as well as his choice as to where they decided to be, what they decided to do. Also unfortunate for the bears who were killed.

quinn, don't get me wrong, I admire his tenacity, drive and conviction. I just think that true respect for bears is quite simply leaving them alone in their environment. As an example, many bears have been killed because campers in their territory don't dispose of their garbage properly, and hey, bears are opportunists, they are going to go for it. I just think this entire tragedy could have been prevented by just leaving the bears to their business, and promoting their cause in the halls of the human world. I feel more for the bears, personally. They didn't have a choice.

Several summers ago three pre-teen boys invaded the Bronx Zoo after hours. Kids being kids they started talking about going swimming and daring each other to slip through the bars of the polar bear enclosure and go swimming with the bears.

All three stripped to the buff, but two of the kids still had doubts. The third kid chucked all the clothes and shoes through the bars and went in after them.

The bear attacked. The two boys outside the cage streaked home.

The next day both bears were killed.

I may be wrong in some of the details, but I think I'm right in drawing the parallel that bears are bears and will defend their territories.

Cav--

I agree with you that Treadwell replaced one addiction with another.

I feel sorry for the bears. I also wonder about the groups of kids who heard his wildlife lectures. Most naturalists agree that the true wildlife lover gives wildlife privacy.

Several years ago a nitwit woman published a book about her warm, loving and hands-on relationship with a black bear. The book was a Book of the Month Club selection. Since then there have been several incidents of wilderness tourist, out from the city for the weekend trying to get touchy-feely with black bears and getting clawed for their obscene advances.

The worst case was the doting daddy who tried to create a photo op so his kids and the bear could be immortalized forever.

This week in Los Vegas, a experienced entertainer was mauled by a tiger. At least the unfortunate performer had brought the tiger out of the jungle on People Turf instead of invading the tiger's world.

Winnie the Pooh, Paddington, Baby Bear & family are all fictional characters and not to be confused with real bears.

Uh huh, Noddy, agreed. Sad thing those polar bears were killed for the stupidity of those kids. Polar bears are the only bears who actually track humans for food. A little more 'Animal Planet' and a little less misinformed mischief would have saved those bears' lives. Sometimes I really wonder about the human race....

They shouldn't have been there. The park service said they were interfering.

There have been some gruesome attacks by bears this year in Alaska, I don't know if it is just one of those years or people are getting foolish. There's a young guy recovering from an attack this summer who is lucky to be alive. He had his scalp torn off and lost both eyes by one bite of a brown bear/grizzly and those weren't all his injuries. That was a female bear with yearling cubs. None of the bears were shot or captured even though the attack occurred in a very popular fishing spot on a Sunday afternoon with folks all around.

I am a avid environmentalist but totally against reintroducing the Grizzly Bear anywhere near people. That's just plain nuts, imho. My little sister used to go fishing with her ex-husband in Anchorage. She'd hold the shotgun and he'd fish. That's the safe way to fish there -- you've got to be willing to be as strong and as deadly as the bears in order for them to respect you and stay away. And then, it doesn't always work. They are a force of nature and totally natural, but so are earthquakes and tornadoes. You wouldn't try to reintroduce earthquakes, would you? We've got plenty of problems without that.

your right cav..the bears didnt have a choice, and many people are ignorant of the dangers they cause to wildlife just by visiting even.

noddy-he did do his best to keep his locale top secret, while he invaded it himself, yes. I think he certainly thought what he was doing was good, and I agree that the education he might have brought, at least the positive education-not the lets go touch the bear simple stupidity some folks have-is admirable but, by education did he in effect make someone act stupidly? I think people are pretty much stupid without help. I would think that some of the chaos of his exeriences which wasnt all roses had environmentalist and others keeping a good watch on what word he was spreading-also, he was very very vocal about it being dangerous and seeing his end before it came about so, I dont know-lets not call him completely wrong but certainly lets give him a nice gray color, IMO of course.

feaola-if the park service were so adamant about them being there, dont you think he wouldnt have been allowed sometime during the last 13 years? They didnt agree with his methods, they didnt want this type of thing to happen however from what ive read on this they took the negative and just kept a watch on it as the positives that came out overruled.

Piffka-I guess you get the picture, bears arent cuddly safe creatures and you go near cubs or near food and you are likely to be killed-its not so hard to understand but, some people just dont get it.

I think basically while yes, he interfered and did wrongly he educated at least on the bears themselves and gave us all a good close up glimpse of them without having them in a zoo, without taking them out of their natural habitat, and thats a nice thing even if he was a bit of a nut, its sad but also with all of the recent news of animals and injuries, it might make some of those really stupid people less stupid-maybe. Then again, if you're that stupid perhaps you should not be in the gene pool anyway...its a natural process that way.

Noddy said: Most naturalists agree that the true wildlife lover gives wildlife privacy.


I couldn't agree more. I am a true animal and wild life lover, but I feel that going deep into the wilderness is like walking right into someones home that you don't know. Lots of animals are hunters by nature as they need to be to survive and anyone who goes into their world is taking a dangerous chance.

I admire the guts this man had, but it was very unwise of him to ever think that he could live with bears and that his a lesson that he will never live to learn.

That kid that went into the polar bears cage was just plain stupid. As Cav said, Polar bears are the one bear that will always attack humans.

Well, Polar bears won't attack if the garbage pickings are good enough.

When they're hungry though they'll do amazing things. A long time ago I was friends with a young Eskimo girl who had a polar bear stick his head right through the siding, the insulation and the drywall of her house -- just over her bed. Her granddaddy ran out the back and shot it. THAT was a story told around town for a while.

Grizzly unfortunately get a "taste" for humans. The photos of the bodies are truly gruesome, bones picked clean, etc. It is bad enough that we've got mountain lions and wolves that may... may... attack livestock and pets. When the top of the local food chain wants to eat humans, that's where I draw the line.

HEY HEY HEY !!!!!!! Wanna step outside with that?

Don't you guys forget it.......I've dined on many an unsuspecting young woman in my time.....usually a nocturnal feed....after marinating them well with Tequila or Long Island Ice Teas.....Hmm Hmm Hmmm....that's good eatin' :wink:

Hee hee...dem grizzlies quite fond of fish BPB....'specially dem pink salmons....

That's because we're smarter than the average bear.......right boo boo?

Who you callin' boo boo Gentle Ben? Don't make me get all Siegfried and Roy (though mostly Roy) on yer ass....