Timothy Treadwell

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Timothy Treadwell (April 29, 1957 – October 5, 2003) was an American bear enthusiast, environmentalist, amateur naturalist, and documentary film maker, whose birthname was Timothy Dexter. He lived among the coastal grizzly bears of Katmai National Park in Alaska, USA for approximately 13 seasons. At the end of his thirteenth season in the park in 2003, he and his girlfriend Amie Huguenard were killed and devoured by one or possibly two grizzly bears.^[1] An audio recording of the attack survived. Treadwell's life, work, and death were the subject of the 2005 documentary film by Werner Herzog titled Grizzly Man.^[2]

Much of what is known of Timothy Treadwell's life was documented by Treadwell himself. With the help of his long-time friend, Jewel Palovak, Treadwell wrote a book called Among Grizzlies that provides information about his work as an environmentalist.

Contents 1 Early life and career 2 Interest in bears 3 Conflicts with the National Park Service 4 Death 5 Media Attention 6 See also 7 Literature 8 References 9 External links

[edit] Early life and career

Born on Long Island, New York, USA, Treadwell described himself as an aspiring actor, recovering alcoholic, drug addict, and eco-warrior. According to his account, he became involved with drugs after failing to gain the role won by Woody Harrelson in the sitcom Cheers. Treadwell's claim to his parents that he was the second choice for the role has not been independently verified.

[edit] Interest in bears

Timothy Treadwell lived among grizzly bears during summer seasons for over 13 years. According to his book, Among Grizzlies: Living with Wild Bears in Alaska, Treadwell overdosed on heroin and cocaine in the late 1980s. After his release from the hospital, and at the urging of a friend, he traveled to Alaska to watch bears. Treadwell attributed his recovery from drug and alcohol addictions entirely to his relationship with bears. Timothy spent the early part of each season camping on the "Big Green", an open area of bear grass in Hallo Bay on the Katmai coast. During the latter part of the season he would move to Kaflia Bay and camp in an area of especially thick brush he called the "Grizzly Maze". Here the chances of crossing paths with Grizzlies were much higher, since the location intersected bear trails. Treadwell was known for getting extremely close to the bears he observed, sometimes even touching them and playing with bear cubs. National Park Service Rangers said what he was really doing was harassing wildlife. Treadwell recorded over 100 hours of video footage (some of which was later used to create the documentary Grizzly Man) and a large collection of still life photographs.

By 2001, Treadwell became notable enough to receive extensive media attention both on television and in environmental circles. He frequently made public appearances as an environmental activist. He traveled throughout the United States to educate school children about bears and appeared on the Discovery Channel, the Late Show with David Letterman, and Dateline NBC to discuss his experiences. He was also a co-author, with Jewel Palovak, of the book Among Grizzlies: Living with Wild Bears in Alaska, in which he described his adventures on the Alaska Peninsula.

Treadwell, along with his friends Palovak and former American Gladiator Jonathan Byrne, founded Grizzly People, a grassroots organization devoted to protecting bears and preserving their wilderness habitat.

Charlie Russell, who has studied bears for 42 years and raised them and lived with them in Kamchatka for a decade, wrote a lengthy response in which he criticized both Treadwell's lack of basic safety precautions such as pepper spray and electric fences (but not his close contact with bears) as well as the predictable, knee-jerk reaction to his death. He is also critical of the film Grizzly Man.^[3]

According to the organization he founded, Grizzly People, five bears were poached in the year following his death, while none had been poached while he was present in Katmai. However, according to court records as reported by the Anchorage Daily News [1] the guilty parties were charged with poaching wildlife along Funnel Creek in the Preserve, an area open to hunting that borders the National Park. According to several sources including Nick Jans book, The Grizzly Maze,^[4] Treadwell only camped near the Katmai coast, mainly in areas around Hallo Bay and Kaflia Bay, and never in or near the Preserve. The only effective way to patrol all 6,000 square miles (16,000 km²) of Katmai National Park is by airplane which is the method used by authorities to control poaching.

[edit] Conflicts with the National Park Service

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Treadwell's years with the Grizzlies weren't without disruption. Almost from the start, the National Park Service expressed their worries about his behavior. According to the file kept on Treadwell by the Park Service, Rangers reported he had at least six violations from 1994 to 2003. Included among these violations are: Guiding tourists without a license, camping in the same area longer than the Parks Service's seven-day limit, improper food storage, wildlife harassment, and conflicts with visitors and their guides. He also frustrated authorities by refusing to install an electric fence around his camp and refusing to carry bear spray to use as a deterrent.

• In 1998, park rangers issued Treadwell a citation for storing an ice chest filled with food in his tent.
• A separate incident involved rangers ordering him to remove a prohibited portable generator.
• When the Park Service imposed a new rule - often referred to as the "Treadwell Rule" - requiring all campers to move their camps at least one mile (1.6 km) every seven days, Tim initially tried to obey the order by using a small motor boat to move his camp up and down the coast. Finding this method impractical, he later hid his camp from the Park Service in stands of trees with heavy brush. Eventually, he was cited at least once for this violation.

[edit] Death

In October 2003, Treadwell and his girlfriend, a physician assistant, Amie Huguenard, visited Katmai National Park in Alaska. Treadwell chose to set his campsite near a salmon stream where grizzlies commonly feed in the fall. Treadwell was in the park later in the year than usual^[5], at a time when bears fight to gain as much fat as possible before winter and limited food supplies cause them to be more aggressive than in other months. Food was scarce that fall, so that the grizzly bears were even more aggressive than usual.^[6]

On October 6, 2003, Treadwell and Huguenard's bodies were discovered by Willy Fulton, the Kodiak air taxi pilot who had arrived at their campsite to pick them up. Treadwell's head, partial backbone, and left forearm/hand still wearing his wrist watch were recovered at the scene. Huguenard's partial remains were found near the encampment, somewhat buried in a mound of twigs and dirt. A large, male grizzly (tagged Bear 141) protecting the campsite was killed by park rangers while they attempted to retrieve the bodies. A second adolescent bear was killed a short time later after it charged the park rangers. A necropsy showed that the first animal had consumed parts of the couple's remains. It is not clear from any evidence or the audio recording if either of these two bears killed the couple. In the 85-year history of Katmai National Park, this was the first incident of a person being killed by a bear.^[1]

A video camera, with the lens cap in place (which blocked all video), was recovered at the site. The camera had been turned on at some point before the attack, presumably by Huguenard, but the camera recorded only six minutes of audio before running out of tape. The audio tape is now the property of Jewel Palovak and has not been released to the public. In the documentary Grizzly Man, filmmaker Werner Herzog urged Palovak to destroy the recording.

[edit] Media Attention

• In 2004, news sites reported that Leonardo DiCaprio's production company, Appian Way, had teamed with Columbia Pictures to develop a film titled The Man Who Loved Grizzlies, covering the life and death story of Treadwell. The film was to be scripted by Ned Zeman, based on his Vanity Fair article, and DiCaprio was expected to play the role of Treadwell.^[7]

• In 2005, director Werner Herzog released Grizzly Man, a documentary about Treadwell's work with wildlife in Alaska, which aired on the Discovery Channel. It includes Treadwell's own footage, along with interviews with people who knew him. Herzog praises Treadwell's video footage and photographs, but states his belief that Treadwell himself was a disturbed individual with a deathwish, though he refuses to condemn him for this.

[edit] See also

• List of unusual deaths
• List of fatal bear attacks in North America by decade
• Vitaly Nikolayenko
• Sloth bear of Mysore

[edit] Literature

• Timothy Treadwell, Jewel Palovak „Among Grizzlies: Living With Wild Bears in Alaska“, 1997, ISBN 0-06-017393-9

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Timothy Treadwell at the Internet Movie Database
• "Wildlife author killed, eaten by bears he loved" at Anchorage Daily News, October 8, 2003
• "Treadwell: 'Get out here. I'm getting killed'" at Anchorage Daily News, October 9, 2003
• "Biologist believes errors led to attack" at Anchorage Daily News, October 10, 2003
• The Myth of Timothy Treadwell at Coastal Bears of Katmai National Park: First-hand account of encounters with Timothy Treadwell in Katmai, by John Rogers
• "Bear Activist and Companion Mauled to Death in Alaska" — Associated Press story giving detailed factual debunking of the whole Treadwell myth, dated May 8 2004, quoted by respected wild life organisation.