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August 18, 2005
grizzly man
I suppose you are going to read reviews for the documentary Grizzly Man on some bear's blog, but maybe not, because the central character looks more like Carson Kressley than Dan Haggerty. He acted a lot like Carson too, which may help understand why he had to identify with a society far removed from humankind.
The cautionary tale of Timothy Treadwell's adventures in the Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska ends in gruesome tragedy in October 2002. The guy wanted to "be one with the bears" and got his wish. While most of Treadwell's adventures are recorded on film, the attack on he and his girlfriend were only in audio, disturbingly interpreted in a creepy monologue by the coroner and the shaken documentarian.
In Treadwell's "study" (he held no wildlife or biology degree) of the bears I saw the typical pitfall of antropomorphism often seen in passionate animal welfare workers, zoo employees, and doomed environmentalists - the ego-driven belief that we are somehow "one with nature" and that we can form some kind of connection with creatures we barely understand. In the end that belief was his mistake, as he tried to do the whole Jane Goodall/Dian Fossey bit with the ursines. With other primates a few branches over that might work, but he was a bit too far over in another branch of the evolutionary tree to really have a clue. The presence of psychiatry and psychology in our society is proof that we do not understand each other or ourselves sufficiently, and it's arrogant to believe we can ever truly understand another species. I don't even understand the bears that go out to Titan every Friday.
Even the name of the organization that supported Treadwell's work, "Grizzly People", reeks with anthropomorphism and romanticisim of wild animals. While he did do a lot of valuable education on behavior and he shared the plight of the brown bear with many people, much of what he was doing in the wild was reckless and did more to damage the Katmai bear population than poachers. In most of the scenes where he was close to either the bears or a nearby fox population, the animal's snouts were always zeroing in on his hands. While we never saw him feeding the creatures, one must wonder why these supposedly wild animals knew that hands sometimes hold food. And when a bear associates food with the smell of humans, trouble begins.
As the son of a man who most likely died a cold, watery death in the wild, I grew up with the basic awareness that nature does not have a sense of morality, it just is. Most animals share the same view as the elements - they don't care, they don't hate or love you, they are just hungry and have to eat or else they will die. In the case of the hungry 25 year-old grizzly that ate both Treadwell and his girlfriend, winter was coming fast and he was not fat enough for hibernation, and Treadwell was the closest thing with meat on his bones. Sadly, the bear was shot, percieved as a danger to other humans, which went against what Treadwell was working for in the first place. It is this lack of understanding of what wilderness truly is that is one of the most tragic killers of the outdoor world. Ultimately, lack of true understanding of wild things is lack of respect.
Posted by jimbo at August 18, 2005 11:18 AM
Comments
Most people are completely disconnected from nature, so you can't expect them to understand nature. Living seperately from the land tends to lead to romanticism, just as office workers romanticize blue collar/manual labour.
When I handle meat, I know it was once an animal, I can see the blood and the muscle. I doubt many people have pondered how it got to the supermarket.
Posted by: copperred at August 17, 2005 5:41 PM
I never understood why certain people like Treadwell think they could hang around a huge animal like a bear, just because they can "identify" with them. I love tigers but I am not about to hang out with them or follow them around. They might get hungry and eat me.
Rob and I saw the trailor for that movie. We thought the same thing about Treadwell (actually we thought he was a flaming queen in the trailor then we found out he had a GF)
Posted by: Dax at August 18, 2005 8:46 AM
Beautiful piece of writing Jim. I blame Disney. Disney (and others like it) give the impression that all animals have middle class American values.
Posted by: Marie at August 18, 2005 9:13 AM
Incidentally, I was personally mauled by a ferocious Kodiak bear (Ursus arctos middendorffi). I have the scar to prove it.
And by mauled, I of course mean a three inch long scratch on my shin. And in the interest of full disclosure, by ferocious Kodiak bear I mean a cub in the care of park rangers. (Momma bear, which had wandered onto base with cub in tow, was safely sedated for transport elsewhere on the island).
Posted by: Boo Augutus at August 18, 2005 10:44 AM
I'm always impressed with your knowledge of nature, both taxonomically and philosophically. It's just something I always saw as background.
Posted by: chrisafer at August 18, 2005 12:02 PM
Poetic, Ironic, or sad? Yes.
Posted by: Kevin at August 18, 2005 4:26 PM