Grizzly Man Vs. Snake Master

The movie Grizzly Man that we watched in class really got me thinking. Throughout the film, Tim Treadwell consistantly crosses a line that should not be crossed between humans and bears. He proclaims to want to protect the bears, but its pretty evident from what we heard in the naration that he wanted to do much more than that: he wanted to 'live in the bear world', 'become their friends', and if he could, hed want to become a bear. In trying to do so, it would seem that he lost all respect for the bears and nature itself and was brutally mauled by a bear as a result. I started to consider other animal activists, like Steve Irwin, who put themselves at risk to achieve the same overall goal of Grizzly Man, and often end up meeting a similar fate. I arrived at the conclusion that although many of those activists walk right up to the edge of the boundary, they seldom cross it in the way that treadwell did. To me, those other activists have it right. Treadwell seems to adopt an extreme philosophy of nature, one that aristotle toys with but ultimately rejects, that nature and humans are one. This view is at the oposite end of the specturm from the view that humans are separate from nature and everything in nature is passive, lacking its own motives. What becomes apparent from this film is that neither of those views are the 'correct' approach. Rather it seems that some form of modified teleology ought to be applied. The bears have their own teleos, which is different than that of humans, and their teleos ought to be respected. By viewing the bears as his friends, and treating them as one man says in the movie "like people in bear costumes" he imposes human goals and motivations on them that simply do not exist. I think Treadwell makes a serious error by refusing to accept that fact. It seems to me that although he had some good intentions, his lack of knowledge about bears and his lack of respect for them did not serve his cause well at all. Even though people may view people like Steve Irwin or Austin Stevens: Snake Master in the same light as they do Treadwell, I would say that Irwin and others like him recognize the seperate teleos of the wild animals they deal with and have a healthy respect for it. Does anyone agree with me, or do you think that in fact all animal activists who get as close to wild animals as Treadwell did are just as crazy as he is?