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Treadwell and Brown Bears
Posted by Bigmnt on Feb 04 2006
Bryon,
I would have to say that my first conclusions and reactions where the same as many of you who have posted here on this topic and for the most part your comments are right on in fact I wrote a letter to his foundation after the death of Timothy and his girl friend describing how irresponsible it was for him to be doing what he was doing with brown bears. I now wish I had not sent that letter.
Before Treadwell died, I had read his book and seen his first video documentary. My first thought, like yours, ... this man is crazy, but after watching I was fascinated. I have been studying bears all of my life and I have had the chance to both hunt and harvest them. As a child I was again fascinated with shows like American Sportsman, where Curt Goudy harvests a brown bear on film. To see Fred Bear harvest his coastal brown bear with a bow was a thrill of a lifetime for me, and I dreamed that someday I would do the same. I have both seen and read countless books and documentaries on bears from Nation Geographics to films by the Craighead institute etc.. one thing that I can say for sure, that if you can look past the Green Peace perspectives of Mr. Treadwell, he has done more in-depth research on brown bear behavior than any man alive or dead for that matter.
Now to say that his interactions with the bears was unnatural or unscientific is debatable, but in my opinion he had no less or no greater impact on his study subjects that Jane Goodall or Diane Fossi and we hail these people as great scientific minds and present them with trophies and awards and cry at their funerals. Why is it that we send a college intern out into the wilderness for thirty days with a rifle or shotgun to study brown bear behavior and the intern uses the same tactics and comes back and writes a inconclusive paper and some how we label he or she as scientifically responsible and credit them with being an expert.
Do we not as hunters, fisherman, photographers, and settlers, who interact with wildlife not have an effect on their behavior? Who is to say what interactions are healthy and what are not? Although I do not agree with Mr. Treadwells agenda, I can say without reservation that he has done more research on brown bears and given the world a fuller perspective on brown bear behavior than any scientists has ever documented.
Bigmnt....
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