The Bear Whisperer
Watched “Grizzly Man” on the Discovery Channel a few weeks ago. I remember, vaguely, hearing about the so-called “Bear Whisperer” several years ago when the man who loves bears and lived among them for over a decade was killed and eaten by one of the bears. Until watching the Discovery Channel show, however, I had no idea how mentally unbalanced this man was.
His name was Timothy Treadwell, and in the videos of himself that he recorded in Alaska - among the bears and foxes - it is pretty obvious that he was suffering from mental illness of some sort. Megalomania, some paranoia (especially in later years), and arguably some repressed issues about sexuality. He honestly believed that he was the lone protector of Alaska’s bears, for some reason, and was convinced that the entire human population was “against” him. He slipped from caring about bears to believing that they were superior to humans, and if given the choice, I suspect that he would have gladly exterminated the human race - himself included - in order to turn the planet into one giant bear haven.
On a more positive note, however, he did take some amazing pictures.
Leave a Reply