Check out ABC...The Bear Man

[BrandonTN]

I'm sure some of you guys remember Timothy Treadwell (Grizzly Man). Anyways, there is another guy, Charlie Vandergaw, on ABC Primetime now that opens up his home in Alaska every year to Black bears and Grizzlies. Pretty incredible footage if you're into this kind of stuff.

http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/Story?id=5288312&page=3

[Guest Fuel]

He'll be snack food for a bear someday.

[KahrMan]

He will most definitely become bear chow one day soon.

[Guest jackdog]

human ala carte

[Guest ColdEspresso]

This guy was very strange. His love for bears goes way beyond obsessive. I am sure that someday the authorities will find what is left of him. His family needs to get him some help.

[Guest Angel 24/7]

He is 70 years old. Maybe is has lost his mind? If he wants to be crazy let him. I agree, we will be hearing about his a** becoming lunch one day!

[strickj]

My sick humorous mind tells me that this guy will not be killed by a bear!He will die from a freak accident involving a turtle bite!

You know kinda like what happened to the Crock hunter! People said for years that he would be ate by a crock just to get fished to death!

[Guest Major Pain]

Hey, bears gotta eat to.--MP

[Will]

Way to funny how the Black Bear as tall as him smacked him in the arm on his porch

and he smacked it across the nose like a puppy dog and it walked away. I have agree

with everybody-lunch ,just when?

[Guest MidTNShooter]

My wife and stumbled on this program by accident. I didn't see this thread the other day so I would have taken the time to TiVo it.

It came on and the first thing I said out loud was.... "Why in the H*LL would any elderly former teacher choose this path?". He left his wife and kids after retirement to be with the bears in the "Bear Haven". His cabin in nestled in the forest of Alaska where the black and grizzlies have the free roam. The earlier "clan" come into his house and feed from his hand in his kitchen. He hands feed them, mouth feeds them and sleeps with them in "The Haven".

The Alaskan state law states that it is against the law to feed them unless you intent to hunt them. He is endangering himself (even though he knows their inherint manners better than the biologist) by teaching them not to fear humans.

The whole time, I was saying,...."No FREAKIN WAY !!!"

When we were in Cade's Coves in East Tennessee. There was a mother black bear and two cubs in a sapling tree going down the one way road about two miles into the state park. The traffic stopped and I realized that there must be some bears spotted.

We walked up with the DVD Recorder and saw some beautiful sights. The tree was pretty much stripped by the family of bears when I told some/ everyone to pack up cause they are coming down. I didn't run or even walk fast when I saw them coming down the tree. Some might say that my lack of concern for my wife and my concern would be foolish. I have another reason. There was a very hefty fella who couldn't out run me, so I was safe.

The old man was shocking. He had a gift when it came to knowing and understanding the bears. He did realize that his young grizzly called Chloe, had grown up and became what she is, wild. He feared her unlike the other bears. The black bears became more unihibited thus making them easy targets for the drive by hunter.

That was a truly wonderful, but yet a shocking story. That is one S.O.B. whose testeese far outway my own.

As I stated earlier that in Alaska that it is illegal to feed the bears unless you intend to shoot them. He would feed them knowing he could go to jail. All he had to do, but refused to, was to tell authorities that he intended to kill one or two. Hmmm, don't understand.

That was a great show.

Thanks All,

MTS

Edited July 10, 2008 by MidTNShooter

[Guest 70below]

The truly sad part of the whole thing, is when they finally eat him, they'll go and put the bears responsible down. I think if a bear eats someone for being stupid they should just leave it be and let it be know.....Don't be stupid, leave the bears alone.

[Marswolf]

"Why in the H*LL would any elderly former teacher choose this path?". He left his wife and kids after retirement to be with the bears in the "Bear Haven".

Maybe you need to know his wife and kids. Getting eaten by a bear may not be so bad.

[DRM]

Watching that was just plain odd. They kind obviously skipped over it for the TV story, but that kind of obsession often has a <ewwwwww> sexual element to it. As in - he really "loves" these bears.

Sick, sick, sick.

[BrandonTN]

Watching that was just plain odd. They kind obviously skipped over it for the TV story, but that kind of obsession often has a <ewwwwww> sexual element to it. As in - he really "loves" these bears.

Sick, sick, sick.

I kind of thought the same thing when he was lying in the grass w/ the black bear and gently stroking the bear's fur...

[DRM]

I kind of thought the same thing when he was lying in the grass w/ the black bear and gently stroking the bear's fur...

Yep... it gave me the same kind of creepy feeling like watching some loner dude give the lusty eye to some 12 year old boy.

It just ain't right :D

[BrasilNuts]

one day some adolesent bear will decide to see what he tastes like and there will be one less nut job in Alaska:screwy: