Despite the sensationalistic title, this is a much more measured portrait than the wildly hysterical Herzog film. The book lets you see that Treadwell was a serious naturalist, not the obsessed whackjob Herzog needs him to be for his film to work. As always, Herzog films are about Herzog. ( )

Timothy Treadwell and his friend (or girlfriend - I think it depends on who you ask) were mauled to death by bears in Alaska in 2003. It seems that there are two, and only two, camps of thought when it comes to Treadwell: most people appear to believe that he got what he deserved, while a much smaller group seems to think that Treadwell was some environmental hero.

Nick Jans is outside of both of those camps; he really does an excellent job of trying to remain balanced. I always kind of cringe a little before reading books like this, because I feel like authors tend to drift toward an automatically sympathetic approach to their subject, sometimes resulting in almost falling in love with them (I'm looking at you right now, Jon Krakauer, who practically deified Christopher McCandless in "Into the Wild"). But Jans doesn't do that. He freely admits that Treadwell is, well, not the brightest bulb when it comes to bear safety. Treadwell took incredible risks doing what he did - I mean, camping right along a bear trail is stupid. It's even more stupid when he refused to carry bear spray (he didn't want to hurt the bears) or an electric fence (same reason).

But Jans is also kind in his evaluation of Treadwell. Yes, the guy was overly dramatic and at least partially fictional (his own "biography" was embellished, to say the least). He said that he was protecting the bears from poachers when there was no real evidence that these bears, protected by the National Park Service, were ever in significant danger of being poached - especially in Katmai, which in spite of being portrayed as this unspoiled wilderness, is actually crowded with tourists on nearly a daily basis. And yes, Treadwell was in actuality putting these bears in more danger by habituating them to human contact (which makes them less wary of approaching humans, which can lead to bad times, usually for the bears). And yes, he approached bears and ignored ALL safety procedures in doing so.

But Treadwell genuinely cared for these bears, something that often is mocked or ridiculed by those who discuss his death. He loved them so much that he named them, followed them for years, spent his entire summer in a primitive campsite to observe them. And, honestly, I don't think that Treadwell would be very upset that this was his end - only that two bears (neither of which can be proven to be the ones who actually killed Treadwell) died in the process, as well.

It's impossible to know which bears actually killed Treadwell. One, an old bear, was shot and killed and found to have human remains in its stomach. Disturbingly, this is one of the bears that Treadwell tracked for years, one that he had named, even. But bears are scavengers as well as killers - just because he did have human remains in him doesn't mean that he was the killer bear. In fact, Jans hypothesizes (although he is the first to admit that it's impossible to know now which bear killed them) that the second bear that was shot, an adolescent (that Treadwell had also observed on multiple occasions) might be the killer, while the first bear was only a scavenger. He points out that adolescent bears are often more aggressive than old, established bears. This bear was scavenged by other bears before its stomach contents could be examined.

I feel like Jans really wants to go back in time and give Treadwell a good shaking and a swift kick of sense and bear safety. Jans has lost a few friends to bear attacks, which me brings up multiple times, as well, and compares and contrasts those experiences to Treadwell's. He also brings up different kinds of bears and which are more likely to attack humans or kill humans. I did learn that it's helpful to know which bear is attacking you - black bears, which are numerous, are less likely to attack humans but, when they do, playing dead is not a good choice; while grizzlies, which are more likely to attack humans, are less numerous and are often just defending their territory, so playing dead with them is a good idea - they'll usually back off if they feel the threat has been eliminated.

The overwhelming conclusion is don't be stupid. Bears are dangerous creatures, and you can't treat them like they're pets or teddy bears. Jans delves a bit into Americans' growing fascination with the wilderness, while many of them don't have much sense when it comes to surviving in the actual wilderness. If you're going to be backcountry hiking, for the love of god, read a book about the animals and plants you might encounter along the way and prepare yourself. If you stick to the paved trails in National Parks, you should be fine.

Altogether, I'd recommend this book, simply because Jans IS so fair in his treatment of Treadwell. ( )

The tragic, true story of Timothy Treadwell’s life in the Alaskan wilderness as a self-appointed champion of grizzly bears.

I found this book at a library sale. It reminded me of a documentary I saw years ago, featuring a guy who lived among the bears in Alaska. I think it was "Grizzly Man." I remember being impressed by the closeup footage of wild bears (and foxes), puzzled and baffled at the man's rambling commentary. It was obvious he was incredibly passionate and enthusiastic about his work with the bears, but he also appeared a bit mentally unstable to me. At the end of it my companion and I turned to each other and surmised that this guy was probably going to end up killed by a bear.

He was. I read some reports of it online and then forgot about the incident until I found this book. Here journalist Nick Jans writes about Timothy Treadwell's past, his engrossing interest in bears and his thirteen-year long project living among them in the wild. While he took meticulous notes on the bears' behavior and relationships, he wasn't at all scientific about it. He claimed he was there to protect them from poachers (bears in Alaska have stable, high numbers and are statistically not in any danger) and deliberately camped right in the middle of the busiest area where bears gather for food in late summer and fall. He refused to use any devices that would deter bears from approaching, instead trusting that they would sense his love and not harm him. And according to accounts of people who spent time helping him with his film projects, he was adept at reading the grizzlies' body language, knowing when it was safe to approach a bear, or wise to keep a distance from another. But it's clear that he put himself in harm's way and it was only a matter of time....

It reminds me quite a bit of Into the Wild (I'm not the only one to make that connection). The longing for a connection to wildlife, yet going into it all relatively unprepared... with a tragic result.

The book includes a lot of interviews with people who knew Treadwell, bear experts, members of the park service who had to deal with him, responders who went to the site when the attack occurred and other people who have strong opinions about what Treadwell was doing. (He spent summers with the bears, and in the winter travelled around giving talks to schoolchildren about bears- some say spreading misinformation- and he had an animal-rights organization called Grizzly People). There's an entire chapter or two of speculation about what actually happened in the moments of the attack. Mostly it's a big question: why did everything lead up to this, and how can we prevent it from happening again. Final chapters detail bear attack statistics (the facts are not what you might expect) and recommendations on what to do if you happen to meet a bear yourself.

A very interesting read and well-written to boot.

from the Dogear Diary ( )

It's important to note that if you go into reading this book without seeing the movie Grizzly Man, I would imagine that it would be confusing. As it happens, I saw Grizzly Man this past spring, and this book is all about Timothy Treadwell, his interactions with bears, and other people's perspectives on this.What this book does is to interview people about what happened with Timothy Treadwell and talk about the way he interacted with Alaskan Bears. It talks about why Treadwell stands out from other people who work with bears and you get a lot of commentary from people such as park rangers and bear biologists and what Treadwell did.One of the things I liked most about this book was that it took the information about Treadwell's death and a couple of other mentioned bear attacks to give the reader advice on bears. The afterword is basically full of advice on what to do if you see a bear, what to do if a bear charges, etc.All in all, definitely an interesting book to read. I would recommend this to park rangers, bear biologists, people who are interested in Treadwell, or anyone who is interested in more closely examining interactions between humans and animals and the fact that as humans we do sometimes anthropomorphize animals. ( )