Timothy Treadwell

[shadowplay]

Anyone else see the Discovery Channel special on this guy? Talk about riding a wave. [yikes]

It seemed like he was doing alright with the animals until he got political in his thinking (people oriented) and lost proper perspective.

[Tony]

The Grizzly guy? Amazing he lived as long as he did; I think he had a clear deathwish.

Not to hijack the topic, but I compare this to another program I saw on PBS yesterday - Alone in the Wilderness. This guy built a cabin by hand in remote Alaska and filmed a single encounter with a grizzly as he was picking berries. As his narration said: "Good thing for the grizzly he didn't decide to come closer". Reason being, as any thinking person living in grizzly country, this guy was carrying a BIG rifle and wouldn't have hesitated to use it.

[shadowplay]

Yes he was Grizzly Man. In the tapes he recorded you could just see him spiral into insanity over the years, strangly fascinating stuff.

I didn't see the other show but it's ironic that guy's encounter involved berries. I read in RD about Treadwell a while back and they speculated that a failure in the berry crop made the grizzlys unusually aggitated, contributing to his demise. You don't want to get between a grizzly and his berrys, I guess?

[nscale56]

IT JUST GOES TO SHOW THAT KNOW MATTER HOW WE WISH OTHERWISE THESE ANIMALS LOOK AT US AS A BIG MAC ON LEGS. WE ARE MEAT. IF THEY ARE GIVEN THEIR SPACE THEY WILL MOSTLY LEAVE US ALONE. BUT GET TOO CLOSE AND CHOMP, WE ARE LUNCH. THERE WAS A SHOW ON PBS CALLED ZOOBOOMAFOO HOSTED BY THE KRATT BROTHERS. THEY WOULD ALWAYS TELL THE AUDIENCE TO GIVE AN ANIMAL ITS SPACE. MR. TREADWELL AND HIS GIRLFRIEND WOULD BE ALIVE HAD THEY HEEDED THAT ADVICE.

KEVIN

[shadowplay]

One thing I could not help but agree upon w/Treadwell (after watching the tapes) as he pointed out repeatedly, the bears all had individual personalities. Just like some humans, some of the bears just seemed to have a bad attitude. Some almost seemed protective of him while others, particularly older non-alpha males, were notably colder towards him. There were several shots of Treadwell scolding a rather dismissive male that is believed to be the one that attacked them. Tim even speculates that the guy may eventually eat him. Unfortunately for Treadwell, and his girlfriend, apparently he became disturbed enough that he felt that on a certain level his death would be the best way to further the bear's environmental causes.

[Felix]

My brother somehow ended up with the DVD and we watched it as well. The guy was passionate, but clearly off his meds. I understand his wanting to convey his message to people, but he went about it wrong. You DO NOT hand around wild animals, acclimating them to humans, in order to protect them. If anything the Bears should be afraid of humans and run from them instead of him living among them. The guy was apparently yelling for his "girlfriend"(no way was this guy straight) to run when he was in the process of being eaten. The Videocamera captured the audio, but not the video of the attack. He was not right in the head. TIMMY!

[shadowplay]

Strangest thing was I kept thinking I'd heard the voice before that he used when he talked to the bears and other animals, and I finally realized he sounded just like Church Lady (Dana Carvey)of SNL fame. :D

[Mommyof3]

I would like to see this Discovery Channel special...any idea if they are replaying it?? I tried to search for it on the Tivo guide...but could not fine anything. Do you remember exactly what it was called?

[Felix]

Grizzly Man