Warning: This article contains content which some readers may find distressing
The real-life story of the 'grizzly man' is one that we will remember for years to come, and it serves as its own warning of what can happen when you trust in nature.
The disturbing 2003 tape of Timothy Treadwell has only been played to one person, and there’s a very good reason for it.
Nobody, not even his family have heard the audio recording, and considering what is on the tape, it’s a good thing it’s being kept hidden from public view.
What happened to Timothy Treadwell and his partner?
On either the 6th or 7th October 2003, while Timothy was doing his yearly camp with girlfriend Amie Huguenard, the pair were attacked just before they were due to be collected to travel back home.
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Even though he was repeatedly warned of the dangers, Timothy believed that he had a special bond with the bears, who must have grown acclimated to his annual presence.
But bears are bears.
After the couple were on their makeshift campsite in the park, a bear snatched Treadwell, mauling him to death before turning its attention to Huguenard.
The brutal bear attack
Just before the attack, the 'grizzly man' managed to record the brutal mauling, and as the couple didn’t have time to remove the lens, there was six minutes of chilling audio captured before the film ran out.
The audio begins with Amie asking if the bear is still out there, before Timothy screams: “Get out here! I’m getting killed out here!”
The tent zipper could then be heard as Amie rushes out, shouting at her partner to ‘play dead’. However, it’s unknown if he could do such a thing as the audio recording was filled with his screaming and shouting as it seemed the bear released Timothy from its grip while Amie rushed over to help.
But as soon as tried to get to her boyfriend, the animal apparently locked its jaws around his head again and he screamed at her to ‘hit the bear’.
Amie shouted at him to ‘fight back’ as she used a frying pan to attack the animal, but with more and more screams, the tape cut short.
Willy Fulton - who was their air taxi pilot for the flight home - knew immediately that the pair were dead as he landed at the park.
He explained that he would find them waiting at the shore to be picked up, but instead there was silence and the 'meanest looking bear' standing on top of a pile of human remains.
His chilling final warning
Little did Timothy know that he had predicted his own death not long before his mauling.
In a clip posted to YouTube, the bear enthusiast was talking to his camera in the wilderness where he thanked the bears for allowing him to get close and become part of their pack.
Timothy stated that ‘God would be very, very pleased with me’ for the work he was doing with the bears, and he felt that he was ‘one of them’.
He added that it made him feel ‘good’ about himself, but he also had a chilling warning that would eventually come true.
Staring directly at the camera, he said: “But if not, be warned, I will die for these animals. I will die for these animals. I will die for these animals.”
Tape only played to one person
Werner Herzog, who created an emotional documentary about Timothy's life back in 2005, showed his life and his legacy, titled Grizzly Man.
Jewel Palovak, who worked as an executive producer on Grizzly Man, claimed that only one person has seen the tape of him being mauled to death.
"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. I was the heir of his 'estate'- video, photos, etc.
"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."
Britt Jones