Timothy Treadwell

Last night I watched another documentary by Werner Herzog called Grizzly Man. It was about the life and death of Timothy Treadwell. Most of the documentary consisted of Timothy's videotapes of himself and his life among the grizzlies. There was some really touching footage of him playing with foxes who had grown to trust him, play with him, sleep next to him while he made video commentaries.

To me, he seemed almost like a child. Even his tone of voice seemed more like a child's than a man's. He would back a grizzly off, and then say, "I love you. I love you." From a description of a time when he received medication, and then rejected it because he felt he needed the extreme highs and lows to be himself, I assume that he was bipolar. He saw himself as the hero in a battle to protect the grizzlies from mankind. He was very sincere in this. I think maybe he sentimentalized the situation and saw himself as a kind of Christopher Robin in the 100 acre wood. He had no scientific education, and I think that this increased his naivete regarding the bears.

Herzog spoke with a Native American, who said that he felt that for Timothy to live among the grizzlies was disrespectful of them, and would lead to the grizzlies losing their fear of humans. This would make them more vulnerable to hunters. I had to agree with the Native American on both counts. There was a piece of Timothy's video which showed a photographic tour. When one of the grizzlies walked up to investigate, the people on the tour threw rocks at him. The bear cowered, but didn't run away, so they continued to throw rocks at him. Timothy was upset by this, but I felt that the bear was confused because of the time that he had lived around Timothy. If they had been a hunting tour, the bear would have been dead.

When Timothy and his girlfriend were killed, it was by bears that Timothy described as "scary, strange bears". He had gone back to his camp site after the bears he normally interacted with had gone to hibernate. Other bears had moved into the territory. One of them killed Timothy and his girlfriend. I don't know, maybe he never would have been killed by the bears that knew him.

Herzog believes that nature is chaotic and destructive. I believe that it is orderly, but bears are not social animals. They only get together to breed, when they are raising cubs, or when there are sources of food that force them to hunt in proximity to one another. Timothy appeared to believe that nature is friendly and ready to embrace him. He made great friends with the foxes, because they are social animals, and understand pack.

I know that he accomplished a great deal in creating public support for grizzlies, which he very much wanted to do. I believe that if he had fallen in love with wolves, or the foxes, or some other pack animal, then he would still be alive. However, because of his work with school children, we might see more protection of grizzlies in the future.