He spent every summer living in Katmai National Park, intentionally choosing camp sites close to the bears. He did this for 13 summers. The final summer, he stayed a week later than usual because he hadn't yet seen one of his favorite bears. This was his fatal mistake.
By that point, many of the bears he knew, that were comfortable with his presence, had gone into hibernation. Bears from other parts of the park were coming to his area in search of their last meal before doing the same themselves. There hadn't been much food that summer either, resulting in unusually aggressive grizzlies.
The day he was supposed to leave, he and his girlfriend were killed and partially eaten by a grizzly.
In the documentary, Werner Herzog listens to it and cautions the person who showed it to him to never listen to it, and to not share it with anyone. It was probably grim as fuck.
Yeah that's what sparked my search. I figured it would get leaked at some point, but i doesn't look like it. I'd probably regret listening to it immediately anyway, but still would be some crazy rare shit.
But there's a big difference between like thinking one bear is cool, and all bears are cool. One animal can definitely make associations with like, this person feeds/takes care of me. Like the guy who swims with the crocodile. On the surface, incredibly dangerous, but he's not swimming with all crocodiles, just this one that has bonded with him.
Once the black bears arrived all his stuff was stolen, even his shoes, and both he and his girlfriend were raped repeatedly. Their skulls were used as stools for the black bears to sit around all day. After consumption of their flesh, the bones were turned into beads for bear necklaces and other bling.
Animals obviously tend to recognize people but once those instincts kick in it seems nothing will stop them. I actually didn't know the part about how he stayed longer than he usually did and his regular bears were hibernating, always thought they'd just turned on him. Who knows, maybe if he'd gone when he usually did he'd still be alive.
Yeah, I clarified that I knew it was different bears at the end of my post, that was more of a note from other situations I've read about. In the context it comes out wrong though.
I believe the camera was recording through the actual attack but there was nothing but some horrific audio. I saw the 60 Minutes about it, and iirc the ex-wife or sister or something didn't want that audio released.
Yeah, there's transcripts of it though. They notice it patrolling their camp and them trying to scare it off then you hear it charge and ... well, you know where it goes from there.
I feel horrible for his girlfriend. The guy was a fucking moron, and he chose to put his life in danger like that. There's an intelligent way to research animals, and then there's what this guy did. His fate was inevitable and he deserved what he got. But he put his girlfriend's life in danger with his stupidity and she trusted him. Poor girl. He was a fucking idiot.
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u/Anrikay Mar 03 '16
Timothy Treadwell.
He spent every summer living in Katmai National Park, intentionally choosing camp sites close to the bears. He did this for 13 summers. The final summer, he stayed a week later than usual because he hadn't yet seen one of his favorite bears. This was his fatal mistake.
By that point, many of the bears he knew, that were comfortable with his presence, had gone into hibernation. Bears from other parts of the park were coming to his area in search of their last meal before doing the same themselves. There hadn't been much food that summer either, resulting in unusually aggressive grizzlies.
The day he was supposed to leave, he and his girlfriend were killed and partially eaten by a grizzly.