“If We Preserve The Integrity Of The Habitat”

Among the things that most intrigues me within “Grizzly Man” is that of Timothy’s presentation. I think on some level we’re supposed to sympathize with Tim, while at the same time recognizing him as problematic… but to be honest I think I spend a lot more time doing one of these things than I do doing the other.

Timothy clearly views himself as protector of the bears- he even declares himself to be such, but at the same time he neglects to disclose information important to this supposed position. While this is clear throughout all of “Grizzly Man”, it most clearly comes across within the video “Timothy Describes His Wilderness Mission” as he says things like, “in the time that I’ve been here, not one bear has been hurt. I’ve been able to guard them.” All the while, as we all know, the safety of the bears can be attributed not to Timothy’s efforts, but to the fact that he spends these summers on a preserve. Though this is made clear by Werner Herzog within the documentary, Timothy never discloses it himself. I think this complicates our understanding both of Timothy’s mission and of Timothy as a character. Timothy has to know that he’s on a nature preserve. He must be aware that the bears are not protected by him, but by are instead protected by law (perhaps we could go on to say that by treating these animals as though they are domesticated and by interacting with them so directly, Timothy is actually doing much more harm to the bears than good… and that he should be aware of this as well, but that’s a question for another day). All the while, Timothy celebrates himself and his supposed success with providing these bears with protection, maybe doing so even more than he celebrates the bears. Arguably, Treadwell could even better protect Grizzly Bears by extolling the protection provided by nature preserves, suggesting that these efforts should be expanded. Ultimately, this makes me wonder about the actual reasoning behind Timothy’s advocacy. We’re aware that Timothy has trouble interacting with humans, which makes me wonder if his celebration of himself as both a member of the bears’ community and as their protector is actually his way of trying to bring about acceptance within human society. While Timothy may not have been paid for his work, he certainly garnered attention for it and with this renown came an understood place within human society. I don’t doubt Timothy’s love of the bears, but I do wonder how big of a role they actually play in his activism.