Fatal attraction

June, 1991:

Few people could claim to be as passionate about their work as Maurice and Katia Krafft.

They devoted their lives to the study of volcanos, getting closer to the action than anyone else dared. Their films graphically illustrate the awesome power volcanos can unleash.

Sadly, they pushed their luck too far during the 1991 eruption of Mt Unzen in Japan. Their deaths came just two years after they appeared on 60 Minutes and in many ways Jeff McMullen's story was prophetic.

Transcript

JAY SCHADLER: "Beauty", said a poet, "is but the first brief glimpse of terror." Welcome to Alaska, home of beauty and the beast. North American brown bears, commonly known as grizzlies, are among the most powerful mammals on earth. With a swipe of their five-inch claws they can skin a salmon alive or bring down a moose. Though attacks on humans are rare, swift decapitation is often the signature of their assault. So why is this man kissing them? By all accounts, Timothy Treadwell, who appeared more suited to a surfboard than a backpack, was a most unnatural naturalist.

TIMOTHY TREADWELL: I stay calm because I certainly can't seem to stay calm in a city or in the rest of my life but I stay pretty '007 James Bond' cool out here, if I do say so myself.

JAY SCHADLER: For 13 summers, here along the coastline of Alaska's Katmai National Park he lived with the big bears as close perhaps as any human being ever has. And during the last five years, he shot some of the most magnificent and intimate footage of grizzlies ever recorded.

LARRY VAN DAELE: He acted like bears when he was out there. When people would encounter him in the field and he'd be hiding sometimes he'd start woofing like a bear.

JAY SCHADLER: Alaska state biologist Larry Van Daele understands the magnetism Timothy must have felt.

LARRY VAN DAELE: We want to be close to an animal like that. We feel this kinship. It's like a great big dog, it's like a friend — you want to befriend something that's that powerful and that beautiful, and it's a siren song calling you into the rocks.

TIMOTHY TREADWELL: Well, let me tell you, ladies and gentlemen, there is no, no, no other place in the world that is more dangerous, more exciting than the grizzly maze. Come here and camp here. Come here and try to do what I do — you will die. You will die here. You will f---ing die here. They will get you.

JAY SCHADLER: Timothy Treadwell was born 48 years ago into a middle-class Long Island, New York, family. Those who knew him say he was an ordinary, everyday kid who loved animals and whose best friend was Willy, a pet squirrel. In high school, he was a standout diver in the swim team. But his parents in a documentary film about Timothy's life say his early success and confidence vanished.

VALENTINE DEXTER (TREADWELL'S FATHER): He tested with the actors to get the bartender job on Cheers and allegedly he came in second to Woody Harrelson. How close is second? I don't know. But that is what really destroyed him — that he did not get that job on Cheers.

JAY SCHADLER: And an undertow of drinking and drugs was pulling him down. One night, he nearly overdosed on heroin and yet to most he remained a charming misfit. One of the few people to ever get close was Jewel Palovak. She was a waitress at a restaurant where she and Timothy worked. Eventually she would become his best friend, a lover for a time.

JEWEL PALOVAK: He was a lot of fun. He was flirty. He was mischievous. But he had a great heart.

JAY SCHADLER: Jewel also became the keeper of Timothy's darker secrets. What made it impossible for you to live with him?

JEWEL PALOVAK: He was an alcoholic. It is hard to live with someone that has a substance abuse.

JAY SCHADLER: But then something extraordinary happened. On a whim and a motorcycle he came here, to Alaska, and discovered religion in the form of a grizzly bear.

JEWEL PALOVAK: There was a lot of bear beds and he was a very tactile person, especially with animals. He laid down on one of the bear beds and was just hanging out. A bear came toward him and he just laid there. And the bear kind of walked all around him and he claims he looked into that bear's eyes and it looked back at him, and nothing happened. He felt that he saw a kindred spirit. The man never had a drink again.

JAY SCHADLER: Though the grizzlies had given him a reason to live, his video camera gave him a way to become a star of his own drama, complete with nicknames for his supporting actors. By the early '90s, the failed actor was becoming a media darling, first with the show Wild Things. Next came a spread in People magazine. Then, in short order, he writes a book of his memoirs, begins attracting celebrities like Pierce Brosnon … advises Disney on its animated films and stars on the Discovery Channel's Grizzly Diaries.

PILOT: I can tell you Treadwell was a capital F.O.O.L. There's no other way to describe it but that, because you don't put yourself in harm's way like this.

JAY SCHADLER: The opinions of this local pilot were shared by many here, who felt Timothy Treadwell and his bears were on a horrific collision course. And yet Timothy seemed to only grow more convinced of his invincibility.

TIMOTHY TREADWELL: If I am weak I go down. I love them with all my heart. I will protect them. I will DIE for them. But I will not die at their claws and paws. I will fight. I will be strong. I will be one of them. I will be the master.

JAY SCHADLER: Acclaimed filmmaker, Werner Herzog, who was making a documentary of Timothy Treadwell called Grizzly Man, combed through 150 hours of Treadwell's footage. He came to believe Timothy was being stalked by a kind of madness.

TIMOTHY TREADWELL: Very tough battle by Crimson. Oh, my friend the raven is here.

WERNER HERZOG: Of course, he's troubled. He's haunted by demons, he's deeply disturbed. And paranoid.

TIMOTHY TREADWELL: It is time for me to go in my guerrilla-style camouflage outfit.

JAY SCHADLER: Timothy begins seeing enemies everywhere. While there was almost no evidence of poaching in the Katmai National Park, he viewed every visitor as a threat to his bears, his world.

TIMOTHY TREADWELL: They are armed with pepper spray and rocks.

JAY SCHADLER: In Tim's mind, these picture-taking tourists with an Alaskan guide are a danger to his beloved bears.

TIMOTHY TREADWELL: I believe the guide is the person with the camera. Oh, that's it. That's enough of this. That's...I can't...

JAY SCHADLER: Ironically, the pepper spray and rocks Timothy sees as weapons are considered by most authorities to be the preferred method of keeping bears at a safe distance.

TIMOTHY TREADWELL: I'm submitting this as Sunday, August 1. It is 4:35:18 on this day.

JAY SCHADLER: He eventually would submit this tape to the park service even though many of its rangers had long ago been added to Timothy's enemies list. Feeling alternately ignored and harassed by the park service, Timothy's rage would sometimes explode on camera.

TMOTHY TREADWELL: It is amazing. Let the fishermen f---ing shoot the animals. Let the f---ing poachers come in here and f--- 'em, let the f---ing commercial people f--- 'em around with their f---ing cameras and the tourists. But we're gonna go screw with Timothy Treadwell, because he loves animals and teaches kids for free. F---!

JAY SCHADLER: Late in the summer of 2003, bush pilot Willy Fulton flew Timothy's new girlfriend, Amy Huguenard out to the camp site Timothy called the 'grizzly maze'. Amy had joined him in his world of danger — imagined and real.

JEWEL PALOVAK: I think she shared his affinity for the wild and I know that she shared his beliefs. But she also did love him so much that she wanted to be with him and she knew it was the most amazing adventure for her. She got hooked on it too.

JAY SCHADLER: But did she fully understand the risk? The first time she was in the wilderness with Tim she can be seen sitting within 10 feet of a mother bear and her cubs. She was visibly tense — too afraid, perhaps, to even turn her head.

PILOT: I sympathise and pity tremendously with the poor girl that put blind faith in this guy as knowing what he was doing.

JAY SCHADLER: Timothy of course didn't see it that way. He had a companion now in this wild place and maybe it was Amy who was steadying this camera as the storm clouds moved in over his camp site.

TIMOTHY TREADWELL: It's tough work. But it's the only work I know and it's the only work I'll ever want. Take care of these animals take care of this land.

JAY SCHADLER: You're watching the last pictures ever taken of Timothy Treadwell.

TIMOTHY TREADWELL: It's the only thing I know. It's the only thing I want to know.

JAY SCHADLER: On October 6, 2003, Willy Fulton returned as planned to pick up Timothy and Amy from the so-called grizzly maze — a patchwork of tunnels and bear pads through thick vegetation. Almost immediately, he sensed something was wrong.

WILLY FULTON: He'd usually leave a couple ... most of his gear would be stacked here, but there was just a couple of bear-proof cans here. And then … turned around and looked, and uh ... pretty nasty looking bear that I had seen here before is just sneaking slow with his head down, just the meanest looking thing, you know, coming through the brush. So I jumped on the airplane real quick and untied it. Took off, turned around and flew over the camp there. And just looked down and saw a human rib cage, you know, that I knew had to be either Tim or Amy laying there. Every time I would come over he'd just starting eating faster and faster and crouch over this, this rib cage there.

JAY SCHADLER: Whether by accident or design, Timothy Treadwell's video camera was switched on during the bear attack, but the lens cap was still on the camera, so there are no pictures. No matter, because anyone who has listened to that tape wishes they never had. The audio tape of Timothy and Amy's death now belongs to Jewel Palovak who says she will never listen to it. She did, however, permit director Werner Herzog to hear it and they were both moved to tears.

WERNER HERZOG: I hear rain and I hear "Amy, get away, get away. Go away." Jewel, you must never listen to this.

JAY SCHADLER: In the hours immediately after the maulings, park rangers arrived at the grizzly maze to investigate. They were charged by two bears who they were forced to shoot and kill. A later examination revealed the remains of Tim and Amy inside. Today, watching Timothy's remarkable footage it is impossible not to surrender to the wonder of his world. For 13 summers he lived with the big bears and his big dreams. You may choose not to admire him, but it is hard not to marvel at him.