I finished watching Grizzly Man last night. An interesting, but not very thought provoking documentary. Anger provoking yes, thought provoking no. From watching the 'self video' clips included it seemed clear (to me at least) that Timothy Treadwell had some sort of mental illness. Quite how someone can claim to be a protector, and lover, of animals and then act in the way he did is a little more than odd.
My feelings before I watched the documentary were mixed and a little sympathetic to how he died. After watching the documentary I feel no sympathy at all. He absolutely got what he was asking for and was lucky* to have survived for as long as he did. The biggest tragedy was of the bears who were killed when his remains, and his girlfriends, were being recovered.
It also appears that as well as the bears he also 'humanised' the foxes that were in the area. Another idiotic thing to do as my assumption would be that the bears and foxes would be less cautious approaching humans and thereby increasing the likelihood of human/wild animal contact that would ultimately lead to an attack and potential death (for either human or animal). But he did love animals though so I'm sure he justified his actions to himself before he carried them out.
* - in the documentary it is commented that Timothy Treadwell was smarter than people gave him credit for because he survived so long living alongside the bears. My take is that he was incredibly lucky to have lived alongside the bears for that long. If he was smart he wouldn't have done it at all or at least would have had some form of protection with him.
