opinions on "Grizzly Man"(Timothy Treadwell)

hel_hev

I am a dog lover, but had a incident a few days ago, walking minding my own business when a dog ran snarling , growling & i though going to attack me ...
it left me alone after a while, but i came home shaking ...
anyway i turned on sky news and saw this thing about some guy living with bears .. (forget his name now) ... he was saying he loved being around them etc .. made me feel good about animals again for a few min ...
i read about him on sky news website and then put his name into a search engine to read more .. but another guy name kept coming up - Timothy Treadwell.
Maybe people have heard of him before , but this is my first time for hearing about him .. if you have nt read
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Treadwell

there was a documentry film made about him "grizzly man" .. you can watch the whole thing on youtube ... its a interesting film

i did, the man was a bit strange alright .. but you have people saying he deserved to die etc ... i dont think he deserved to die ... i think maybe he did get too close but in his mind he didnt think he was doing any harm , and i think he did seem to really like bears and animals ....

the experts say he didnt really know anything about how to act with bears , but he must of sort of known what he was doing , as he was with them for 13years before he died

i hope the new guy hanging out with the bears on sky news doesnt end up the same way ....

the film is creepy - ish esp when you see the reaction of the german film director listening to the tape of timmy dying ...

dunno about him "protecting the bears" they seemed to be in a sort of park / forest in the states where there was alot of rangers etc ... however it does say bears have been pouched since hes gone
did anyone hear about this a few years ago when it happened? is it the gereral opinion "he got what he deserved " ?

the dee

I've heard about him - saw some documentary about him too. He seemed to have good intentions and have a genuine love and concern for the animals.

However, I came away feeling that he was a little delusional - he seemed to think that the bears were his friends and understood his intentions towards them. It seemed like he forgot that they are unpredictable wild animals.

I don't think he deserved to die, but I think it's important to remember that animals are not like people, and maintain a distance and respect for wild animals - especially ones that can potentially kill you.

Demonique

I heard that Timothy had a lot of 'issues'. Look, he got himself and his girlfriend eaten by bears, the guy was clearly not right in the head. He also left food in his camp, obviously he didn't know that much about bears

LuckyStar

I watched the film, the guy is clearly crazy. I mean he saw himself as a protector of bears when he was working in one of the most state-protected bear habitats in America.

Tropheus

I saw the documentary also. It was very well done. He did come across as a bit of a nutter though. LuckyStar is right, the bears didn't need protecting in the area he spent his summers. You can never trust a wild animal. I guess he realises that now:)

littlebug

I saw this a while back. Whilst I was horrified at what had happened to Timothy Treadwell and his girlfriend I did wonder how exactly his getting so close to the bears = protection Surely the general public can be plenty educated without all this up close business and encroaching on their territory.

Same with the "Rogue Predator" guy, Dave Salmoni (discovery). Though it makes good television that I was admittedly glued to it surely does more harm than good to get wild animals used to having humans in their midst? However, knowing not to run from a grizzly and to play dead when attacked by a black bear will come in very useful in the wilds of Mayo;)

Mawg

I understand his love for the animals, and perhaps he wasn't one hundred percent there in the head, but what he did may actually have been destructive to the bears.

Everytime someone is killed by a wild animal it spurs a wave of human fear towards that animal and blood thirsty hunters use this reaction to justify killing more animals of the same species. People justify killing sharks because many surfers/swimmers are attacked by them every year.

I really think that with wild animals it's best to keep your distance and appreciate them safely, and in their natural environment.

Pj!

Watched it on youtube after seeing this post.


I found it very interesting. At the end of the day he was just escaping his demons. There are a lot worse people than him in the world.

Manic Moran

the dee wrote: »

However, I came away feeling that he was a little delusional - he seemed to think that the bears were his friends and understood his intentions towards them. It seemed like he forgot that they are unpredictable wild animals.

I don't think he deserved to die, but I think it's important to remember that animals are not like people, and maintain a distance and respect for wild animals - especially ones that can potentially kill you.

That about sums up my opinion.

As a humorous annecdote, buddy of mine lives in Alaska. Used to do a charter-pilot thing with a floatplane. He got this hire from a city-slicker from down South, who wanted to go fishing, and many of the good fishing spots in AK (Well, anywhere, really, the state is huge) are practicably reachable only by air. So the guy is loading up the airplane with his fishing tackle, cooler, and whatnot when the Alaskan notices something missing.

"Where's your gun?"
"Come again?"
"Your gun. There are bears and such out there"
"Oh, I've got bear spray"
<Shrug> "OK, whatever. It's your funeral"

So off they go, the fisherman is dropped off, and they make an arrangement to have the pilot return in about 8 hours. Pilot takes off, but decides to loop around to check on the guy, only to see him flailing around almost totally submerged in the water. Turned out the guy had mis-understood the function of the repellant spray, and sprayed his body and clothes with it.

NTM

Grim.

Manic Moran wrote: »

That about sums up my opinion.

As a humorous annecdote, buddy of mine lives in Alaska. Used to do a charter-pilot thing with a floatplane. He got this hire from a city-slicker from down South, who wanted to go fishing, and many of the good fishing spots in AK (Well, anywhere, really, the state is huge) are practicably reachable only by air. So the guy is loading up the airplane with his fishing tackle, cooler, and whatnot when the Alaskan notices something missing.

"Where's your gun?"
"Come again?"
"Your gun. There are bears and such out there"
"Oh, I've got bear spray"
<Shrug> "OK, whatever. It's your funeral"

So off they go, the fisherman is dropped off, and they make an arrangement to have the pilot return in about 8 hours. Pilot takes off, but decides to loop around to check on the guy, only to see him flailing around almost totally submerged in the water. Turned out the guy had mis-understood the function of the repellant spray, and sprayed his body and clothes with it.

NTM

lol

texas star

Im sure its a big difference from a bear eating you and a dog attacking you give a dog a good kick if it ever snarles at you,dogs need to know who is master.The movie looks a bit odd.I got sucked into buying it you can have it for free,he was very odd...

hel_hev

the whole film can be seen on you tube, its quite clear , so no need to buy ...

for anyone thats interested theres a book "the grizzly maze" by Nick jans

below is a link to book excerpt --

warning the story is scary/graphic!!

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=153604

Demonique

This is apparently a clip of Timothy ranting and raving, I'm not sure if it's really him, it could be a fake someone posted to pull the p**s.

Contains swearing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFvUpUY7Ysw

hel_hev

Yeah, that is him. its part of the film grizzly man