Posted on 10/08/2003 2:09:33 PM PDT by RussianConservative
ANCHORAGE, Alaska, Oct. 8 — A self-taught bear enthusiast who once called Alaska’s brown bears harmless was one of two people fatally mauled in a bear attack in the Katmai National Park and Preserve. THE BODIES OF Timothy Treadwell, 46, and Amie Huguenard, 37, both of Malibu, Calif., were found Monday at their campsite when a pilot arrived who was supposed to take them to Kodiak, state troopers said Tuesday. Treadwell, co-author of “Among Grizzlies: Living With Wild Bears in Alaska,” spent more than a dozen summers living alone with and videotaping Katmai bears. Information on Huguenard was not immediately available. The Andrew Airways pilot contacted troopers in Kodiak and the National Park Service after he saw a brown bear, possibly on top of a body, at the camp near Kaflia Bay. Park rangers encountered a large, aggressive male brown bear within minutes of arriving. Ranger Joel Ellis said two officers stood by with shotguns as he fired 11 times with a semi-automatic handgun before the animal fell, 12 feet away. “That was cutting it thin,” said Ellis, the lead investigator. “I didn’t take the time to count how many times it was hit.” The victims’ remains and camping equipment were flown Monday to Kodiak. Ellis said investigators hope to glean some information from video and still cameras. As the plane was being loaded, another aggressive bear approached and was killed by rangers and troopers. The bear was younger, possibly a 3-year-old, according to Bruce Bartley of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. The victims’ bodies were flown to the state medical examiner’s office for autopsy. Dean Andrew, owner of Andrew Airways, said the pilot was too upset to comment. The company had been flying Treadwell to Katmai for 13 years and Huguenard for the last couple of years. Andrew said Treadwell was an experienced outdoorsman.
CONFIDENCE AROUND BEARS Treadwell was known for his confidence around bears. He often touched them, and gave them names. Once he was filmed crawling along the ground singing as he approached a sow and two cubs. Over the years, Park Service officials, biologists and others expressed concern about his safety and the message he was sending. Advertisement
“At best he’s misguided,” Deb Liggett, superintendent at Katmai, told the Anchorage Daily News in 2001. “At worst he’s dangerous. If Timothy models unsafe behavior, that ultimately puts bears and other visitors at risk.” That same year Treadwell was a guest on the “Late Show with David Letterman,” describing Alaska brown bears as mostly harmless “party animals.” In his book, Treadwell said he decided to devote himself to saving grizzlies after a drug overdose, followed by several close calls with brown bears in early trips to Alaska. He said those experiences inspired him to give up drugs, study bears and establish a nonprofit bear-appreciation group, called Grizzly People. Grizzly and brown bears are the same species, but “brown” is used to describe bears in coastal areas and “grizzly” for bears in the interior. The deaths were the first known bear killings in the 4.7-million-acre park on the Alaska Peninsula.
As far as things happen in threes this was it:
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
I just thought this deserved to be repeated.
That poor woman! Unarmed...
More apt would be "Disarmed"...
If the bear had removed her legs instead, of course, the word would be "defeated".
It just sounds so cool when you fire it.
Actually, I went to the ballistics table looking for muzzle energy for #00 buck to use as a comparison against accumulated pistol hits. I agree, comparing against a rifled slug is not appropriate but since I didn't immediately get what I was looking for, I used the 3" 12ga slug ballistics.
the pistol round wouldn't be able to create a deep bone crushing wound channel but assuming a 9mm would create a 3" wound channel 6 inches deep, multiply that times 11 rounds and you have a lot of shock. All that having been said, I wouldn't want to take on a killer bear at point blank range with a pistol. Give me a semi-auto 3" 12ga with slugs.
When my brother's USAF fighter squadron went to Alaska for training, they issued him and the other aviators 38 caliber sidearms in case they had to bail out in the wildness.
One of the aviators asked the leader if the 38 could be used on a grizzly bear. The leader said, "Yeah, it will annoy him so that he will kill you faster."
Anyway... I know this thread is dead, but I just *had* to post this, in tender memorial of the two dead 60's fruitcakes:
Have you stopped to consider
How it will feel
Cold grinding grizzly bear jaws
Hot on your heels
- Jim Morrison, "Shaman's Blues"
(Shoulda *listened* to all those Doors records, fruitcakes...)
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