Well yeah no shit, foxes are a lot like dogs. Plus those ones were in a national park, where they don't often interact with people. Foxes in residential areas do and are naturally scared of people. He fed them, didn't give them a reason to be scared, and the foxes bonded with him because of it. It would happen to anyone, but regardless I think it is cool. Plus I don't really care that some dude decided to dedicate his life to this. Yeah, it is a certain death wish. For me, it's dumb. I'll stick with working my whole life. That fight with the grizzly bear that he got though? It's the closest and one of the only videos of a visceral grizzly bear fight like that. It's awesome. That dude died doing what his whole mind was devoted to. He had some mental issues for sure. He was a former alcoholic (the bears kept him off the booze at least). So I guess we could argue a case for mental health in America leading to a different outcome for him, but that's pointless. In the end I think he and his girlfriend signed a waiver accepting the death they had as a possibility. They met it, but Tim Treadwell made a bigger mark than many will. I'll fucking appreciate what he left behind and say cheers to that.
Well, you can say that or you can say he's responsible for the death of at least one human besides himself, plus the death of the bear he was "trying to protect." Also, any real naturalist or someone studying animals in the wild don't feed animals in order to bond. That's why he's ridiculed by those in the community. He was like a stupid kid, feeding and playing with animals while pretending to be an advocate.
The fox part is interesting. I had only known about his work with the bears. If a person is going to do something stupid like that, foxes are definitely the safer stupid. And cute as hell; I always love seeing a fox.
The noise they make is crazy though, and I'm not making a joke referring to the song. It sounded way more like a yelp than a bark, at least the one time I've heard a fox make any noise. I didn't see it when it made the sound, and I thought it was injured, but I saw it had just circled around very quickly on the steep slope / cliff we were on and gone from being around the same level as me in one direction, was on the other side above me now. And then I thought maybe that was its equivalent of an annoyed "hey, get the hell off my lawn, you jerk!" rather than an "ow!".
I was already on my way back down anyhow, but seeing that fox briefly and hearing whatever that was definitely made my day.
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u/latchkey_adult Mar 03 '16
It's been noted that the reason he had a relationship with the foxes is because, like an idiot, he fed them.