Timothy Treadwell

Timothy Treadwell (born April 29, 1957 on Long Island , † October 5, 2003 in Katmai National Park , Alaska; real name: Timothy Dexter ) was an American wildlife filmmaker and radical animal rights activist who dedicated his life to the grizzly bears and the grizzly association People founded. He and his girlfriend Amie Huguenard (* October 23, 1965 - October 5, 2003) were killed and eaten by a 28-year-old brown bear . Treadwell's life, work and death were the subject of Werner Herzog's acclaimed documentary Grizzly Man in 2005 .

Life

Much is known about Treadwell's past life through his own communications, but these are not necessarily reliable.

The son of Val and Carol Dexter, the third of five children in a middle-class New York family, was good with children and animals and was a mediocre, not too good student (he himself writes that he was inclined to alcohol and once also to the car parents went to junk). The sporty and good-looking "all-American boy" won a scholarship from Bradley University in Illinois , where he was successful as a diver , but, according to his parents, also came into contact with cannabis . When he lost his scholarship after a back injury, he dropped out of his third year of studies, returned home and initially worked as a lifeguard on Long Island .

He moved to California when he was about 20, adopted the stage name Treadwell and tried unsuccessfully as an actor. His father mentions in an interview that Timothy was on the dome show Love Connection "and somewhere else" and that he was invited to test recordings for the role of Woody Boyd on the sitcom Cheers , which, to his great disappointment, was cast with Woody Harrelson . The young man, however, was not a child of sadness, fit into the party, surf and punk scene in Malibu, but also worked in well-known restaurants as a bartender or waiter. As a colleague, he met Jewel Palovak, who later became a friend and colleague.

He tried so completely to separate himself from his past that he first passed himself off as a Briton, later as an Australian from the outback and an orphan. He even obtained information about his alleged place of origin and adopted an accent that was laughed at because it did not suit an Australian, but resembled that of the Kennedys.

Alaska

Hello Bay to Kaflia Bay.

Alone on a used motorcycle with a tent and a cheap camera, he had his first encounter with grizzlies in 1989 on the Chitina River . He had made the trip on the recommendation of his friend Terry Tabor, who had brought him to the hospital after an overdose of a mixture of cocaine and heroin and thus saved him. He almost fell in love with these bears and decided to make their protection part of his life. He later stated that they ultimately cured his addiction because he was forced to choose between the self-imposed mission and the drug.

From 1990 he spent the summer months in Alaska; first on Kodiak , then in Katmai National Park on the coast between Hallo Bay, where he stayed in early summer in an open grassland that he called the Grizzly Sanctuary, and the Grizzly Maze (grizzly labyrinth), which he always ends up being during his stay, because at that time it was densely populated by bears who fished salmon on the outflow of Upper Kaflia Lake to eat themselves fat for the winter.

In 1991 he and Jewel Palovak founded the organization Grizzly People, which is committed to protecting bears and preserving their habitat. In the winter he continued to work temporarily in the hospitality industry, but he also gave lectures with his image material, for example in schools, and as far as known, always free of charge. In 1994 People Magazine published a photo report about him (circulation 3.4 million), from 1995 he worked on TV reports on grizzlies, from 1998 he was out and about with his own video equipment. Frequent appearances on talk shows and his 1997 book Among Grizzlies (co-author: Palovak) made him known to a wide audience. On February 20, 2001, he was a guest on David Letterman's Late Show .

The last days

Last camp: human (3, 6) and bear corpses (7, 8).

As usual, Treadwell broke off camp at the end of September, more precisely: on September 26, 2003. But because there was a problem with the return flight tickets to California in Kodiak, he and his companion Amie Huguenard returned to the reservation on the 29th “for a few days”, longer than usual. In his diary, Treadwell notes that he hates civilization. On October 4th or 5th he contacted Palovak and the bush pilot Willy Fulton by satellite , with whom he arranged the pick-up on the 6th at 2:00 p.m. Treadwell chose his campsite near a stream of salmon, where grizzlies usually forage in the fall. At this time, bears struggle to gain as much fat as possible before winter, a limited food supply naturally makes the bears more aggressive than in other months. The food shortage caused bears from other parts of the park to move into the area, which made the bears even more aggressive than usual and which Treadwell was unaware of.

Some of Treadwell's last footage, taken hours before his death, shows a bear dipping into the river for a piece of dead salmon. Treadwell mentions in his recording that he has a bad feeling about this particular bear. In Grizzly Man , Herzog posits that Treadwell may have filmed the bear here that eventually killed him.

Discovery of the incident

When Fulton arrived as agreed, he did not find any luggage prepared for the return flight, but during the search from the aircraft he saw a large bear that apparently ate from a human corpse and did not allow himself to be chased away (he describes that he failed to fly over him several times while flying low moved away). He reported this to his company by radio and was instructed to wait for the rescue teams on site - at this point it was hoped that someone might have survived. The Alaska State Troopers were alerted , i. H. the Police in Kodiak and the Park Service in King Salmon , each about an hour's flight away.

At 16:26 two rangers arrived on site. Since the optimal landing site, about a hundred yards from camp, only offered space for an airplane, Fulton had moored his Beaver on the opposite side of the lake. He was picked up by the Park Service's Cessna 206 and led the group single file along a bear trail to the camp. Pilot Allen Gilliland, ex-policeman and experienced hunter, had joined him because the two policemen who arrived shortly thereafter land further away and first had to overcome a few hundred meters of alder scrub. Unlike Fulton, the three comers were armed with two Remington 870s and one Smith & Wesson .40 caliber. When a large bear appeared about six meters away and did not let itself be chased away by screaming, but came even closer, it had to be killed. Of the 21 targeted shots fired within seconds (11 from the pistol, five each from the pump guns), 19. The bear, then identified as the 28-year-old "Bear 141", had come within 4 meters. The policemen, who had no visual contact with the first group, had mistaken the noise for firecrackers, which are also used to drive away bears. A second, larger bear could be driven away by screams.

In the camp, the top group found both tents collapsed or trampled, but undamaged and without traces of blood. The entrance to the sleeping tent was open, the shoes were neatly stored in the awning, and any food that had been left was not touched by animals. The couple may have been surprised at lunch.

However, human remains were found immediately in front of the tent. During the subsequent search of the area, the first thing that was discovered about a hundred feet from the tent was the remains of Treadwell: the head, a piece of spine and part of a shoulder, as well as both forearms. Huguenard's remains, which a bear had buried, were last found just two meters from the tent.

During the removal of the body parts and the equipment, there was a third encounter with a bear who, despite screaming and warning shot, continued to approach the men and was therefore also killed at close range. Afterwards it turned out that the three-year-old was probably just curious.

Because of the rain and the meanwhile falling darkness, the autopsy of the bears was postponed, but there was no flying weather the next day. When 141 body parts and rags of clothing were found in the digestive tract of Bear on October 8 and transported away in four sacks, the young bear that had been killed had already been eaten. It was not possible to determine whether he or perhaps another bear had anything to do with the couple's death.

Reconstruction of the last few minutes

Treadwell had also documented his own death: his camera was found on, but with the cap on the lens.

The audio recording begins on October 5th at 1:58 pm and lasts about six minutes to the end of the tape, according to the Park Service report of December 29th. The relevant part of the tape was at least listened to by the police investigative commission, later by Nick Jans [?] And Werner Herzog. On October 29, 2003, a spokesman for the Troopers responded to a media inquiry by stating that Treadwell's entire estate had already been given to the Grizzly People, had no copy of the recording, and was not providing any information about the investigation. The Grizzly People would have demanded silence under threat of legal action. On the part of the police, not even the Park Service had subsequent access to the seized evidence.

Amie Huguenard probably switched the tape on at Treadwell's orders when he was outside the tent, but in the excitement forgot to remove the lens cap. Treadwell carried his radio microphone. According to the descriptions, the recording, which has strong background noise, begins with rain and wind noise. Then Huguenard asks “Is he still there?”, Later you can hear Treadwell shouting “Come out, he's going to kill me!” The sound of the zipper at the tent entrance follows, you hear Huguenard's attempt to scream the bear away, and you hear twice "Play yourself dead!" - a method that is often recommended to ward off bear attacks at the last moment, as the bear then no longer feels threatened. That could have helped for a short time this time too, because a brief exchange of words follows as to whether "he's gone now".

It is believed that Huguenard was with Treadwell to take care of him, but the bear came back and Huguenard then backed away. Treadwell then yells, "Slap him," followed by the sound of the frying pan, along with Huguenard's screams to drive the bear away again, whereupon the bear may have dragged Treadwell away by the thigh in order to consume the prey undisturbed. Treadwell must have realized by now that he could no longer be saved and yelled at Huguenard to go or run away. Herzog describes Huguenard's last recorded screams as bloodcurdling. Almost nothing can be heard from the bear itself at all times.

criticism

Treadwell himself repeatedly portrayed himself as the "lonely and only" protector of the bears and certainly believed in his mission. However, his behavior towards the bears is criticized by all wildlife experts because he grossly negligently disregarded basic rules in dealing with the animals, for example the "50/100 rule" valid in national parks: visitors have to stay away from male bears at least 50 yards, keep 100 yards away from females with juveniles. Treadwell, on the other hand, touched young animals and describes how he was so delighted with the young "Peanuts" that he kissed him on the nose. According to the experts, he fed his living mascot, the fox Timmy, who had accompanied him for years - an absolute taboo for field researchers.

His refusal to carry bear spray (firearms were banned in national parks until 2010) and his camp to be secured with an electric pasture fence worried the park administration. Because of prohibited behavior or complaints, he was put on record at least six times; even a ban on entry was considered. Park Service Manager Deb Liggett, who addressed Treadwell personally, once told the press that "Treadwell worries them more than the bears." However, the advertising effectiveness of Treadwell's appearances was appreciated. Nature filmmakers, on the other hand, complained about being disadvantaged compared to Treadwell.

After the Park Service introduced the rule in 1997 that camps must be moved by at least a mile after a week at most, Treadwell began camouflaging his camps. The fact that he belittled the bears, gave them nicknames and sang songs to them was criticized as alarmingly naive, and criticized by Herzog as pathological, but was well received by his main audience, the schoolchildren. He was even discussed as a consultant for the Disney cartoon Bear Brothers . It fits into the picture that Treadwell also introduces the teddy bear that "accompanied" him on his expeditions to his film audience.

Critics of his claim as the “defender of the grizzlies” not only object that neither the population in the area “guarded” by Treadwell is endangered, nor is the poaching that he often invokes there (the biologist Larry Van Daele even advocates controlled shooting ), but above all that the eccentric provoked not only his own death, but also that of his girlfriend and two bears and thus ultimately damaged the cause he was striving for. The fact that he survived so long is not due to his empathy, but to the special good nature of the bears on the Katmai coast. Commentators also agree that Treadwell's "research" did not yield any new knowledge. He used his stays for self-discovery and self-staging, working on a film "The wonderful Mr. Treadwell", as it were. His recurring warnings against imitation sound like "a father who warns his son not to smoke while the cigarette is hanging on his lips".

It is reported that he often behaved like an aggressively growling bear towards visitors to the national park who came close to him and "his" bears. The fact that he was deeply indignant every visit is documented by Treadwell's self-made material. Herzog shows the clips in question as an indication of occasional paranoia.

Nick Jans, author of The Grizzly Maze, who annoyed Treadwell's supporters as well as his opponents, criticizes Herzog's film and assumes that the selection of the archive material was more aimed at producing a (sensational) successful film than does justice to the charismatic person portrayed to become.

Jans calls Treadwell “wrong-headed but very right-hearted”, which can be roughly translated as “on the wrong path, but with the heart in the right place”. But also, little different from Herzog: "He saw himself as an actor and was a chameleon all his life."

As a shrewd adventurer, he appeared on talk shows. When David Letterman asked if anyone would ever read in the newspaper that he had been torn to pieces, he answered firmly: "No." Nevertheless, he always took the possibility into account. He often said goodbye to friends with the words: “And if I don't come back, that's it.” He implored them not to send out rescue teams because they would kill any bears involved.

Movies

• Werner Herzog used Treadwell's archive material, which he supplements and often contrasts with interviews with experts and people from Treadwell's environment, into the multi-nominated and award-winning documentary Grizzly Man (2005) , which was also heavily criticized by Nick Jans . The film was also released on DVD and BD .
• The Grizzly Man Diaries is a series of eight thirty-minute films compiled from Treadwell's material. It aired on Animal Planet on August 29, 2008.

Notes and sources

1. ↑ Craig Medred: Biologist Believes Errors Led to Timothy Treadwell and Amie Huguenard Attack ( English ) In: Anchorage Daily News . August 22, 2005. Retrieved November 5, 2014.
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Grizzly Man (DVD). Directed by Werner Herzog . Lions Gate, 2005.
3. ↑ In addition to the self-portrayal as an orphan from Australia, reference can be made to Nick Jans' final sentence in the interview quoted: "He saw himself as an actor and he was a chameleon his whole life."
4. ↑ In the interview, his mother said it was 19 or 20, while the author Nick Jans said it was 1981.
5. ↑ Warren Queeney; Grizzly Man script
6. ↑ Treadwell and Palovak, Amongst Grizzlies, pp.5f.
7. ↑ Huguenard (born October 23, 1965), medical assistant from Aurora (Colorado) , had spent several weeks with Treadwell in the summers 2001-2003. ( Find A Grave and Kevin Sanders)
8. ↑ Nick Jans et al
9. ↑ Nick Jans: The Grizzly Obsession ( English ). Dutton Adult, City 2005, ISBN 0-525-94886-4 .
10. ↑ The age could be determined fairly precisely because this animal was anesthetized in 1990 and marked by a tattoo on its mouth. On the basis of a tooth extracted on this occasion, his age was determined at 15 years. The bear had bad teeth and was skinny, but healthy. Its weight is given as 1000 pounds. (Nick Jans et al.)
11. ↑ Nick Jans later identifies him based on the description of the coat markings as Baby Letterman, who is familiar to Treadwell . Jans also contradicts Herzog's assumption that Bear 141 was "foreign" to Treadwell.
12. ↑ Park Service Says Treadwell - Huguenard Mauling Not at Night wolfsongnews.org cites the Anchorage Daily News of August 28, 2005.
13. ↑ Herzog and the coroner Franc G. Fallico rather hint in the film. Kevin Sanders describes the process in detail .
14. ↑ Treadwell's head was partially scalped. Fallico believes that this heavily bleeding, but not necessarily life-threatening, injury occurred at the beginning of the attack. (Grizzly Man script)
15. ↑ Specially dosed and labeled pepper spray, can be used successfully from a distance of about 10 meters, s. Information from the National Park Service .
16. ^ National Park Service: A Quick Guide to Gun Regulations in the Intermountain Region. Retrieved July 25, 2017 . 
17. ↑ Jans calls this new introduction the "Treadwell rule"; s. also Ashley Carter, The Unbearable Lightness of Being Timothy Treadwell
18. ↑ This area offers a lot of food and attracts a lot of bears; they are therefore used to the proximity of other "animals" and behave less aggressively than elsewhere in Alaska. "... So, the challenge for the coastal grizzlies isn't dealing with people - it's competing for food." ( Kevin Sanders quoted from an interview with John Hechtel, Alaska Department of Fish and Game)
19. ^ "He exchanged an addiction to booze and drugs for an addiction to celebrity." (Dr. Steve Stringham, friend of Treadwell, quoted by Ashley Carter et al.)
20. ↑ Jans, quoted by Carter.
21. ↑ Van Daele (see Grizzly Maze script) and John Rogers , "... would readily imitate the behavior of bears ..."
22. ↑ Interview with Nick Jans, s. Web links
23. ↑ spiegel.de The Bear Whisperer , August 15, 2005
24. ↑ Overview and excerpts from the respective episodes.

bibliography

• Timothy Treadwell, Jewel Palovak "Among Grizzlies: Living With Wild Bears in Alaska", 1997, ISBN 0-06-017393-9
• Nick Jans, “The Grizzly Maze: Timothy Treadwell's Fatal Obsession with Alaskan Bears.” New York, NY: Penguin Group, 2005. ISBN 0-525-94886-4 .
• Mike Lapinski, "Death in the Grizzly Maze: The Timothy Treadwell Story." Falcon, 2005. ISBN 0-7627-3677-1

Web links

• Grizzly People
• Timothy Treadwell in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Grizzly Man script transcription of the film texts, English.
• Interview Jason Zasky interviews Nick Jans