The Bear Man

June, 2008

It's not exactly our idea of a relaxing holiday. But every summer, Charlie Vandergaw heads into the Alaskan wilderness and hangs out with bears.

Now, we're not talking tame little Teddies here. Charlie's bears are the big, black kind and the even bigger Grizzlies.

Charlie pets them and scolds them as though they're no more dangerous than the family Labrador. It takes a bit of getting used to, especially when his furry friends lumber into your personal space.

Special features:

PHOTOS: Liam Bartlett discovers what it's like to 'live' with wild bears.

BLOG: Liam meets the real life Grizzly Adams.

Full transcript

INTRODUCTION LIAM BARTLETT: If they had told me I would end up in Alaska hanging out with wild bears I'd have said "you're crazy". Especially as I know what happened to the last bloke who tried it - he was eaten alive. Nevertheless, there I was off to meet a fascinating character called Charlie Vandergaw. Every summer, he goes bush and lives with his bears. Not tame little teddies, but big black ones and even bigger grizzlies. Strangely enough, Charlie is an ex-hunter who, after one extraordinary encounter, decided he'd rather befriend bears than shoot them. He calls his little patch of paradise 'Bear Haven' and from the first breathtaking moment of this story you can see why.

STORY LIAM BARTLETT: In the wilds of Alaska after the snow has melted, a truly remarkable relationship rekindles. They call him the bear whisperer, but Charlie Vandergaw prefers to be known simply as a retired school teacher. A man who would rather spend is summers with wild bears, than people.

CHARLIE VANDERGAW: That a girl, yeah. I imagine there is people all over with betting pools on how long I'm going to survive, which is fine.

LIAM BARTLETT: What do your friends and family think when they see you doing this?

CHARLIE VANDERGAW: That I'm crazy.

LIAM BARTLETT: Charlie Vandergaw is no scientist and this is not a zoo. It is Charlie's summer home, the property he built more than 20 years ago where black bears and the giant grizzly bear - both potential man eaters - roam freely. Incredibly, despite the risks, these explosively dangerous animals are welcome guests.

CHARLIE VANDERGAW: I've been slapped, I've been knocked unconscious, I've been T-boned by large bears and knocked to the ground and had a hard time getting up. I've been thrown to the ground by bears, but it was in no way that any of those was an all-out attack. I guarantee I wouldn't be sitting here today if a bear had given me an all-out attack. At the same time it's probably like anything else - if you've got thousands of hours with bears the odds are... quit it, quit it! The odds are mounting...

LIAM BARTLETT: Don't, don't hit him like that. Don't do that. Please. To be honest, I wasn't sure what to expect when we flew north from Anchorage to Charlie's Bear Haven. Up here the taxis need wings, there are no roads. After 40 minutes flying through bear country I touched down on the runway Charlie carved out of the wilderness. G'day, Charlie is it? Liam.

CHARLIE VANDERGAW: How are you?

LIAM BARTLETT: Good to meet you. This is Bear Haven is it, house guests here already?

CHARLIE VANDERGAW: There are some around.

LIAM BARTLETT: I'll stay close to you. Here, its not a matter of you finding the bears, they find you. They're everywhere. Believe me, it takes some getting used to. Today there are six black bears roaming around. And remember, they're wild, unpredictable, and very powerful.

CHARLIE VANDERGAW: Look at how wide she is across the chest.

LIAM BARTLETT: I know.

CHARLIE VANDERGAW: Sheer power. Don't, don't. She's alright.

LIAM BARTLETT: You say she's alright?

CHARLIE VANDERGAW: She is. Look at her - does she look like an angry animal?

LIAM BARTLETT: Well...

CHARLIE VANDERGAW: No.

LIAM BARTLETT: Do you really want me to answer that?

CHARLIE VANDERGAW: Looks like a happy bear. Come here.

LIAM BARTLETT: Not exactly Yogi Bear. That's the problem. What are you trying to prove, though, by being so close to bears?

CHARLIE VANDERGAW: Nothing. When I look at a bear it says, "Pat me." It's like a horse or a dog or a cat, only it's a bear. It's a wild thing. I get them to come to me and I know that...

LIAM BARTLETT: What was that?

CHARLIE VANDERGAW: She's chasing another bear.

LIAM BARTLETT: I've got to tell you it's a bit weird being this up-close-and-personal with a black bear in the wilds of Alaska. Charlie says her name is Lady and she has been coming here for about 13 years. Every now and again you have to pinch yourself and remember this is not the family dog you are dealing with.

CHARLIE VANDERGAW: If this animal wanted to do us harm now it would be like a chainsaw gone berserk. You cannot defend yourself against this animal.

LIAM BARTLETT: You've never worried that any of those bears, even grizzlies, may eat you?

CHARLIE VANDERGAW: No, I don't even think about being eaten. Why why would they want to eat me? Only a hungry bear, a starving bear would eat a human.

LIAM BARTLETT: But is there a chance Charlie?

CHARLIE VANDERGAW: Yeah, there are chances that there's a deranged bear or a sick bear that might decide that I was a prey.

LIAM BARTLETT: Got a slight visitor here, it' a bit difficult to ask you another question at the moment so well just take a break. Well, I'm glad you're confident.

CHARLIE VANDERGAW: Surely you're not afraid of that animal?

LIAM BARTLETT: Well, there' a small part of me that is afraid of that animal yeah.

CHARLIE VANDERGAW: But don't you look at the way the animal looks? Are its ears back? Is it snarling? Is it is her hair standing on end?

LIAM BARTLETT: Well, I haven't got that far, Charlie. I'm just looking at a bear in the wilds of Alaska.

CHARLIE VANDERGAW: Okay, so that's exactly what I do. Only I'm careful to look at the bear. I see a creature with eyes and with lips and with teeth and with ears.

LIAM BARTLETT: I see the teeth. I see big teeth and big claws. But you have been a hunter haven't you?

CHARLIE VANDERGAW: Yes, I have I hunted hard for years.

LIAM BARTLETT: Did you hunt bears?

CHARLIE VANDERGAW: Yes, I did.

LIAM BARTLETT: Charlie wasn't always such an animal lover. For years, he was an ardent hunter. And even now, respects the rights of others to kill. But then one Summer's day, he had a life-changing encounter. A huge, black bear appeared at the house and crawled up to him on its belly. A big black bear on his stomach?

CHARLIE VANDERGAW: A big black bear on his stomach. And that's a very subservient posture for a bear to get into. So I started doing the same thing.

LIAM BARTLETT: So you're on your stomach with an adult bear?

CHARLIE VANDERGAW: A big adult bear.

LIAM BARTLETT: Thinking, "Am I going mad?"

CHARLIE VANDERGAW: No, this bear wanted me for a friend. Pure and simple. He was willing to make himself small, to show that he wasn't trying to dominate me.

LIAM BARTLETT: And that was the start of the love affair?

CHARLIE VANDERGAW: That was the start.

LIAM BARTLETT: He called the bear Big Jack, and pretty soon he was followed by others. The way to a bears heart is through its stomach, so Charlie used food to bond with his new neighbours. This is the only place in the world where you'll find grizzlies and black bears side by side. He has had as many as 27 bears in the yard at one time.

CHARLIE VANDERGAW: I will tell you something, it's very satisfying for me to feed a wild animal. I love to feed animals. Food is what it's all about with the bear, they either eat or they perish. She spends approximately half her life in hibernation, the rest of the time she's eating.

LIAM BARTLETT: She eats plenty of it too, by the look of her.

CHARLIE VANDERGAW: Oh, she will be magnificent by the end of September, shell weigh a couple of hundred pounds more.

LIAM BARTLETT: So she'll put on a couple of hundred pounds in the next few months?

CHARLIE VANDERGAW: Yes.

LIAM BARTLETT: Thank goodness we're here now. For years Charlie shared his property with generations of bears. Aside from family and a few friends the outside world was oblivious to the extraordinary relationship he developed with them. It was only recently that authorities found out about Charlie's secret life, and they were not happy.

BRUCE BARTLEY: What he's doing is clearly illegal, and its illegal because its dangerous and its dangerous both to people and ultimately to bears.

LIAM BARTLETT: How much longer will your department tolerate what Charlie's doing?

BRUCE BARTLEY: Well, if if it was up to us we wouldn't tolerate it any longer, but you know in Alaska it's a little different than some places.

LIAM BARTLETT: You'd shut him down tomorrow, would you?

BRUCE BARTLEY: The Alaskan Department of Fish and Game would, yeah. Well, this bear, I'm standing here looking at it, it has just torn down a bird feeder.

LIAM BARTLETT: For wildlife officer Bruce Bartley bears are the number one management issue in summer. Keeping them out of Alaskan suburbs is a nightmare, and feeding bears is strictly illegal. Charlie is viewed by officials as a rogue, teaching his bears very bad habits.

CHARLIE VANDERGAW: Oh, oh, get down.

LIAM BARTLETT: You think he's setting a bad example do you?

BRUCE BARTLEY: Absolutely. And, you know, it's going to end up poorly for the bears because then when bears... when we've trained them to come to people for food, and they come to people and a problem is created, almost inevitably the bear ends up dead.

CHARLIE VANDERGAW: That's what they say - a fed bear is a dead bear. If they go from here to my neighbour's and start trashing his place, looking for food, they're dead.

LIAM BARTLETT: But you don't want to see that?

CHARLIE VANDERGAW: That would be terrible. The only thing I can say to you is that in all the years I've been here I don't believe I've lost a single bear to a neighbour.

BRUCE BARTLEY: He's living on the edge. Ad you know we had the famous incident here several years ago where another 'bear whisperer' Timothy Treadwell... he finally pushed his luck too far and he got killed.

FOOTAGE OF TIMOTHY TREADWELL: For once there is weakness they will exploit it, they will take me out, they will decapitate me they will chop me into bits and pieces. I'm dead.

LIAM BARTLETT: Timothy Treadwell was the self-proclaimed protector of grizzly bears. For 13 years he shared their domain, but then he was eaten alive. What is the difference between what you're doing and what Timothy Treadwell tried to do?

CHARLIE VANDERGAW: It is as different as night and day. I've come in here and established my territory. The bears know it's my territory. They're the ones that are coming to me. Timothy was living in the wilderness with totally unhabituated grizzly bears.

LIAM BARTLETT: You're saying he invaded their territory, whereas they are coming to yours?

CHARLIE VANDERGAW: That's exactly what I'm saying. No. No. She's getting quite upset with me now.

LIAM BARTLETT: Should we move?

CHARLIE VANDERGAW: No.

LIAM BARTLETT: We're okay here?

CHARLIE VANDERGAW: You're perfect, she's not upset with you.

LIAM BARTLETT: Oh, bloody hope not. Charlie Vandergaw is without a doubt one of the most intriguing men I've ever met. He knows the outside world sees him as a maverick, whose walk on the wild side could cost his life. But that is a price Charlie is willing to pay.

CHARLIE VANDERGAW: Well, what do you want me to do? Say I want to die wearing a diaper in a nursing home? If I'm capable of having wonderful, exciting, happy days creating this place and playing with these bears who's the winner? Am I like some sorry sucker who happened to work until he's 70 in an office, is that living? No I beg to differ with you, that's existing. I live out here. Every day is wonderful out here.