A Simpler World

One of the things I've heard 

about Mr. Treadwell, and you can 

see in a lot of his films, is that 

he tended to want to become a bear. 

Some people that I've spoken with 

would encounter him in the field, 

and he would act like a bear, 

he would "woof" at them. 

He would act in the same way a bear 

would when they were surprised.

 Why he did this is only known to him. 

No one really knows for sure. 

But when you spend a lot of time with bears, 

especially when you're in 

the field with them day after day, 

there's a siren song, there's a calling 

that makes you wanna 

come in and spend more 

time in Their World. 

Because it is a simpler world. 

It is a wonderful thing, but 

in fact it's a harsh world. 

It's a different world that 

bears live in than we do. 

So there is that desire to 

get into Their World, 

but the reality is we 

never can because 

we're very different 

than they are. 

HERZOG :

The line between Bear 

and Human has apparently 

always been respected by 

the native communities of Alaska. 

We visited The Curator of 

Kodiak's Alutiiq Museum, 

which had recently been raided 

by tourists out of control. 

The Curator :

Somebody wanted it so much, 

they cut the paw off. 

They stole it from here. 

It was quite tragic for us because it's on loan 

and They came in and took it. 

HERZOG :

And how do you see 

Timothy Treadwell's story? 

The Curator :

I see it as something that's both... 

It's tragic because, yeah, he died and his 

girlfriend died because 

he tried to be a bear. 

He tried to act like a bear, and 

for us on The Island, 

You Don't Do that. 

You don't invade on 

their territory. You... 

When you're in their territory, 

you know you're there. 

And when you're nearby, you make 

sure that they know you're around. 

You know, for him to act like a bear 

the way he did, would be... I don't know. 

To me, it was the ultimate 

of disrespecting The Bear 

and what The Bear represents. 

HERZOG :

But he tried to protect 

the bears, didn't he? 

The Curator :

…..I think he did more 

damage to the bears 

than he did... Because when you 

habituate bears to humans, 

they think all humans are safe. 

Where I grew up, 

the bears avoid us 

and we avoid them. 

They're not habituated to us. 

If I look at it from my culture, 

Timothy Treadwell crossed a boundary 

that We have lived with for 3000 years. 

It's an unspoken boundary, 

an unknown boundary. 

But when we know we've 

crossed it, we pay the price.