Insane Stories From People Who Lived With Animals

Most people who decide to move in with a large number of non-human animals are either scientists or just really lonely people who like cats a little too much. Timothy Treadwell was more the latter not a scientist, but a failed actor. But the animals he liked a little too much weren't (relatively) harmless

Most people who decide to move in with a large number of non-human animals are either scientists or just really lonely people who like cats a little too much. Timothy Treadwell was more the latter — not a scientist, but a failed actor. But the animals he liked a little too much weren't (relatively) harmless pets; they were grizzly bears.

According to his obituary, Treadwell spent 13 summers living with and studying bears in Alaska. He was controversial, partly because he lacked actual training as a research scientist and partly because he was way too confident around his quarter-ton subjects, claiming that the bears would never hurt him because they "love me too much."

Even Treadwell's defenders had to have seen that he was becoming dangerously arrogant. In 2003, Treadwell wrote a letter to an associate, which read, "My transformation is complete — a fully accepted wild animal — brother to these bears." In October of that same year, he was killed and eaten by one of his "brothers."

To be fair, the bear that killed Treadwell wasn't one he was familiar with, and it was much later in the season than he usually stayed, during a time when food is scarce and bears are working double-time to pack on an extra layer of fat before the winter. But his failure to recognize that not-so-small danger is what ultimately killed him and his girlfriend, who watched while the bear tore him apart, dragged him away, and then came back for her. 

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