Grizzly Man Diaries

When I got back home from watching this movie, I was telling my boyfriend about it. He asked a really good question: What does that have to do with philosophy? And I said well, I'm not quite sure yet but I think it goes along with how separated from nature humans are. And he responded, and the grizzly man showed you why we are. That really got me thinking. I feel this movie shows us how some people feel being in touch with nature makes you wacky. Why is that? Why are the people that have such passion for a cause considered crazy or as one of the people in the movie said "mentally retarded." I think it is pretty absurd to say that. Everyone is entitled to have their opinions, but I completely disagree. Timothy Treadwell was a person that showed such passion for bears. I personally think he did show that grizzly bears do have a bad reputation. Although he did constantly remind everyone that they are very dangerous, which is no doubt true. I had a wildlife behavior class last year and we learned about bears. My teacher says the best way to defend yourself from bears is to take someone else with you that runs slower (joking of course). But the main point of his section on bear behavior and safety was that it's really human population growth that makes these bears attack people. Before our population was out of control, bears had a bigger territory. Bears have a wide home range. When we make them stay in confined areas, they run into other bears more often, and also people. This makes them very nervous thus scared and therefore they attack. While that explains the bears nature to attack, it doesn't explain why someone is crazy to study bears and be one with nature. Yes, Timothy acted pretty crazy sometimes, touching bear poo and what not, but aside from the really weird things he did, what is wrong with what he was trying to do? He was trying to A. protect these animals and B. study them and show the world what real bears do. I think he succeeded. His message about bears, and foxes alike, is now worldwide. Yes he was attacked and killed by these bears, but he got some of the best footage of bears we have, not to mention he died doing what he loved and not many people can say that. I think it was beneficial for him to do this especially if he had serious problems in the past with drugs and drinking. As for those that say he was retarded or stupid, well thats fine because your entitled to your opinion but I think you have to look deeper into the subject to really understand why he was doing this with such passion. He did survive over a decade. For someone who is going into conservation and wildlife sciences like me, people like Timothy are extreme but also inspiring. He was so in touch with nature. Human culture I feel takes us so far away from nature. All we want from nature is food. We don't think about nature, we really don't experience it much and we also don't respect it like Timothy wanted us to. All these things don't mean we have to go crazy and change our lifestyles completely. But simple things like not littering or respecting wildlife and not killing an animal because they're making holes in your yard or something minuscule like that is a start. My last idea was the part about why we aren't close with nature and if Timothy is an example why. I don't think Timothy is a reason we aren't close with nature. I feel fear of being killed by a wild animal is a part of it though. However, I feel it's convenience that holds us back from being close to nature. People don't say "oh nature, how convenient." It's more like "why does it always have to rain when I'm outside." We all like our modern amenities, and myself included. Bathrooms inside a house is way better than sliced bread. Along with this convenience of man-made things is then ease. Why would anyone want to go out and kill a cow when they can just run to the grocery store and pick up some meat. Life is just so much easier now that we don't have to find our food, kill it and prepare it. Then you have to take into consideration how much stress we have added to our lives by all these conveniences. Guess thats is a good trade-off though. Timothy has forgotten about all the modern conveniences and has really connected to nature. He really tries to understand nature by being part of nature and not working against it. The best way to understand bears is to live with them. I don't feel tragedies like Timothy's should be a reason why we don't want to connect with nature. I think we should connect with nature more to understand it better. Our computer models can only take us so far. Real data and observation is how we get those computer models in the first place. Projects like Timothy's should be done more often in my mind. I think he should of had more protection, and by protection I mean tranquilizers, to help keep him out of danger. All in all, I feel Timothy should not go down in history as a crazy extremist ecologist but as someone who showed true passion for wildlife and tried to get a better understanding about these wild animals. Either way, he has still showed the world the passion he had. If only a drop of that passion was in everyone.

What do you guys think about all this? Is situations like these a reason why humans are so disconnected with nature? Is Timothy crazy because he had such a passion for nature and those that lived in it?