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Josh Hewitt

Emre Koyuncu

English 106

April 30, 2012

A Deadly Summer with Bears

In the summer of 2003, a man set out on a journey into the wild to protect the animals he

passionately loved. During that summer, the man and his girlfriend were both killed by the very

grizzly bears they were there to protect. Timothy Treadwell tested the forces of nature in the doc-

umentary Grizzly Man, directed and narrated by Werner Herzog. The documentary unfolded

the unique story of Treadwell who spent a consecutive 13 summers on the Katmai Coast of

Alaska alongside wild grizzly bears. During his time with the animals, he filmed over 100 hours

of footage. He used his camera not only to capture amazing shots, but also as a video diary.

Treadwell was completely obsessed with the grizzly bears. He treated them like harmless pets by

giving them all names and talking to them like they were his friends. Although the park rules

prohibited people to get any closer than 100 yards to the bears, Treadwell totally ignored these

rules and sometimes even got close enough to touch them. Some people saw Treadwell as a great

man that helped protect the bears while other people saw him as a lunatic that was bothering the

wildlife and asking for death.

On his final summer with the bears, Treadwell felt comfortable enough with them that he

brought along his girlfriend, Amie Huguenard. According to Treadwell’s footage and diaries, it

was her first time coming along with him on his trip. Herzog revealed that Huguenard expressed

how much she feared the bears and wished to stay as far away from them as possible in her diary.

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Nonetheless, she camped with Treadwell near a salmon-filled stream. Treadwell wrote in his di-

ary that two things were different about this trip than usual. He explained that he traveled to

Alaska later in the summer than usual and that there were also some unfamiliar bears that had

moved into the area. During the end of the summer, grizzly bears try to find as much food as

possible to gain fat for the winter. Food and rain were particularly scarce that summer and some

bears had resorted to killing and eating each other.

On October 5, 2003, Treadwell and Huguenard were attacked by one of the unfamiliar

bears. The camera was recording during the attack but only the audio was recovered. According

to the audio, a bear wondered close to the tent and Treadwell tried to scare it away. Having no

way to protect himself, Treadwell was pummeled and screamed to Huguenard to run away im-

mediately. She did not want to abandon Treadwell so she continued to hit the bear in the head

with a frying pan. The results of the attack were not discovered until the next morning when

Willy Fulton, the Kodiak air taxi pilot and close friend, arrived to pick them up. Every summer

Treadwell was on time waiting for the plane but this year was different. Fulton knew something

was wrong so he travelled to Treadwell’s camp to find the two bodies torn to pieces. During an

interview with Treadwell’s ex-girlfriend, Jewel Palovak, Herzog was allowed to listen to the

recording of the attack. He rightfully chose not to play the recording in the documentary because

of how real and traumatic it sounded. He even advised Palovak to destroy the recording so no

one would ever bear the burden of listening to it again. Many of the people Herzog interviewed

were upset about the couple’s deaths, but no one was surprised considering the danger of the op-

eration. Treadwell approached his grizzly bear obsession in an immature, childish manner. He

never had any proof that he was protecting the bears. Herzog did a great job of portraying Tread-

well as a man that ultimately gave up protecting himself.

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Children were the target audience for Treadwell’s films on bear information and protec-

tion. He presented his footage to many classrooms and many children. Some people believe that

Treadwell purposely portrayed himself in a childish manner on camera because of his audience.

He named all the bears and foxes, talked to them and about them in a simple, high- pitched

voice, and even kept a teddy bear in his tent with him. Treadwell did more than portray himself

as a child, he refused to be an adult. Ellen Brinks wrote an article discussing Treadwell and his

inner-child called Uncovering the Child in Timothy Treadwell’s Feral Tale. She

writes, “Treadwell projects a child-like persona, conveyed in part by his abundant energy (when

he is being chased by “Timmy the fox,” the mood is breathless, buoyant, and joyous); by his

“Prince Valiant” haircut (which, as one friend recalls, utterly disguises his receding hairline); by

his diet of peanut butter sandwiches, candy bars, and Coke; and by the presence of his childhood

teddy bear as tent-mate” (Brinks 305). If Treadwell was simply acting childish for the kids’ sake,

why would his diet contain childish foods? Why would he sleep with a teddy bear? Neither of

those things would be shown to the children in his footage of the bears. This childlike behavior

was more than an act, Treadwell admired the freedom and innocence of childhood so much that

he decided to behave like one. No sane, grown man should live out in the wild with grizzly

bears; let alone a man that believes he can still be a child. This immature behavior led to many

bad decisions such as touching and harassing the bears. His juvenile mindset and irresponsible

actions in the end led to his death.

Protecting the grizzly bears is what Treadwell ultimately set out to do. Did he achieve

this goal? Herzog revealed footage of Treadwell encountering what he believed to be poachers.

The footage showed these people throwing rocks at the bears and Treadwell hiding in the bushes,

just watching the abuse happen, complaining about it on camera. If he was trying to protect the

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animals, why didn’t Treadwell approach these people and tell them to leave the bears alone?

Once the footage was revealed, investigators discovered that these people were simply re-

searchers; not poachers. This was the only encounter Treadwell had with what he thought to be

poachers in the 13 years he visited the bears. In the documentary, Herzog interviewed a park

ranger who enlightened everyone on the poaching issue in the area. The ranger said that poach-

ing wasn’t really a serious problem in the park. He admitted that poaching did occur but it was

actually helpful because it controlled the population of the bears. In other words, if some grizzly

bears were not poached, the population would grow and there wouldn’t be enough food to go

around and there would be too many bears to keep track of. However, Treadwell was determined

to keep the poachers away. Was he truly trying to protect these bears or was it simply a method

of getting away from the society he hated? Everyone has their opinions but the truth died along

with Treadwell.

Treadwell repeatedly told the camera, “I will die for these animals, I will die for these an-

imals, I will die for these animals.” He eventually did indeed die; however, it was not for the an-

imals. It’s quite ironic when you think about it. A man who lives with grizzly bears every sum-

mer and claims to do it to protect them ultimately is killed by the very animals he tried to protect.

Many times Treadwell stated that the bears were extremely dangerous and that they could kill

him at any second; yet, he continued to get within arms length of the bears and even touched

them every once in a while. This was strictly against the rules of the park and it was for a good

reason. Any sane man would at least bring some sort of weapon on a dangerous expedition such

as this; but not Timothy Treadwell. He said that he would never hurt the bears even if it meant he

would die. This almost sounds like an indirect form of suicide.

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In the documentary, Treadwell’s parents said that he grew up a normal boy and received

average grades. It wasn’t until he went off to college that he became a little different. He created

another identity for himself and never revealed anything from his past. Treadwell was an aspir-

ing actor and auditioned for a role in the television series, Cheers, but lost it to Woody Harrel-

son. He said that this was the point in his life that he turned to alcoholism which eventually lead

to other drugs. Treadwell confessed that his passion for bears began after he had a near-fatal

overdose of heroin. It was then that he felt he needed to do something meaningful with his life;

thus, he dedicated his life to protecting bears. Herzog showed many clips of Treadwell saying

that he disliked the real world and felt he was treated unfairly. Possibly, Treadwell had given up

on life and chose to spend the rest of it with his beloved bears. Maybe he did not care that his life

may very well come to an end out in the wild.

Herzog did a very good job at portraying Treadwell’s story and giving both sides to the

debate of whether he was doing the right thing or not. Herzog rightfully expressed his opinion

that what Treadwell did wasn’t right in a tasteful way. Many people he interviewed including

Treadwell’s friends and family believe Treadwell was doing a great thing by trying to protect the

bears and sharing his footage with the world. Unfortunately, the outcome of his journey proves

this theory wrong. He never had any proof that he provided protection for the bears and he even-

tually died trying to prove himself. If Treadwell had approached his love and passion to protect

the bears in a more mature fashion, he might have actually done something productive. There are

many ways to help protect bears but going and living with them every summer is not one of

them. Treadwell hoped to help bears, but also longed to be famous. In the end, his wish of being

famous came true as he’ll go down in history as the Grizzly Man.

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Work Cited

Brinks, Ellen. “Uncovering the Child in Timothy Treadwell’s Feral Tale.” The Lion and the

Unicorn 32.3 (2008) : 304-323. Project Muse. Web. 20 February 2012.

Grizzly Man. Dir. Werner Herzog. Lionsgate Films, 2005. DVD.