Chilling tape of 'Grizzly Man' who filmed himself being eaten alive by bear has only been played to one person
There's a reason why the disturbing 2003 tape of 'grizzly man' Timothy Treadwell has only been played to one person.
Treadwell, a bear enthusiast, was best known for documenting what it was like to live out in the wild with them in Alaska's Katmai National Park.
His obsession with bears started from a young age, as the New Yorker would head to Alaska on camping trips with his family, where he would casually go up to chat and play with them.
Years later, he made the decision to live with them every summer until his death in 2003.
Advert
Sadly, his desire to 'act like a bear' is what lead to his demise, as the United States Department of the Interior (DOI) confirmed that 'an adult male brown bear killed and ate Mr. Timothy Treadwell, 46, and Ms. Amy Huguenard, 37, at their campsite near a lake at the head of Kaflia Bay on the Pacific coast of Katmai National Park' on either 6 or 7 October 2003.
Werner Herzog released an emotional documentary about Treadwell's life back in 2005 titled Grizzly Man. You can check the trailer out below:
Jewel Palovak worked as an executive producer on Grizzly Man, and she has claimed that only one person has seen the tape of him being mauled to death by the bear.
"When we started production everyone involved, except for myself, wanted to use at least a bit of the audio tape in the movie," she wrote on Reddit.
"But contractually it was off of the table.
"I agreed to let Werner hear it because I felt as the director it was important to his perception.
"Once he listened he knew that it didn't belong in the movie."
Alleging to be the 'heir of his estate', she said it was her decision for the tape to not be released to the public.
"I was the heir of his 'estate'- video, photos, etc," Palovak explained.
"And every contract for each project that I did after his death had a clause in it that the 'death tape' would not be included in any production."
She noted that 'Timothy was well aware of and definitely accepted the risks of living with wild grizzlies'.
"But after thirteen summers of peaceful integration with the bears he photographed, he probably let his guard down a bit more than he should have," Palovak noted.
"After all of his close encounters with bears year after year, he was killed outside of his tent in the rain without his shoes and glasses on, not while photographing at close proximity in the field."
Anish Vij