Timothy Treadwell: The “Grizzly Man” Who Met A Grisly Death At The Hands Of A Bear
Lions Gate PicturesTimothy Treadwell had been warned several times that his bear encounters would one day turn deadly.
To earn the nickname “Grizzly Man,” you need one of two things: a deep enthusiasm for grizzly bears or immense amounts of gray hair.
Timothy Treadwell had the former.
Starting in the late 1980s, Treadwell rose to notoriety through his documentary films chronicling the lives of grizzly bears in Alaska’s Katmai National Park. He spent several summers in the park, claiming to feel more at home in nature with the bears than he did in human society.
The Grizzly Man filmed himself approaching the bears, touching them, and occasionally even playing with the cubs, attributing his closeness with the grizzlies to a sense of trust and mutual respect. Park rangers and the National Park Service disagreed, frequently warning Treadwell that his interactions with the bears would eventually turn deadly.
But nothing would deter Treadwell from spending time with his beloved grizzlies — not even a citation from park rangers for leaving food in his tent and for his failure to follow other established camping rules.
And after 13 summers with the bears, the rangers’ prediction came true.
Willie Fulton/Alaska MagazineTimothy Treadwell and his girlfriend Amie Huguenard were both mauled to death by a bear in 2003.
In October 2003, 46-year-old Treadwell and his 37-year-old girlfriend Amie Huguenard once again found themselves in Katmai National Park. It was a good bit later in the season than Treadwell usually stayed.
By autumn, the bears were usually storing up food for the winter and preparing for hibernation, but Treadwell was determined to track down a favorite female bear of his. On October 5th, Treadwell and Huguenard prepared to be picked up by a chartered floatplane the next morning.
But when the pilot arrived as scheduled, he was unable to find the couple anywhere near their campsite. Instead, according to The Mirror, he saw the “meanest looking bear” feasting on what appeared to be a human ribcage.
When park rangers arrived, the bear attacked them, forcing them to kill it. Human body parts were later discovered in its stomach. And there were also some uneaten human remains left behind in the general area.
But as gruesome as this scene was, the true horror emerged after Treadwell’s video camera was uncovered at the couple’s campsite. At first, it appeared as if the tape was blank, but the rangers quickly realized that it wasn’t — the video was just too dark to see anything. But the audio was crystal clear. And it had captured Treadwell and Huguenard’s final moments.
On the tape, which has never been released to the public, Treadwell reportedly screams that he’s “being killed out here” as the bear rips him apart. Huguenard first urges him to “play dead” and then to “fight back.” But just moments later, she meets the same grisly fate as her boyfriend.
