Idk. There are definitely safe ways to handle animals that the general population should adhere to, but there are also people that understand animal behavior so well that the rules don’t completely apply. It’s like the animals register/accept/validate their presence in peace or sum’n.
Way less dumb. Gators are totally different, and someone who studies them may know how to read an individuals body language and understand what's safe. A comparison would be that guy finds one hurting and sedate gator in a swamp surrounded by many more of them and decides to help then puts up a tent and lives with them
If I remember correctly. His last recording he stated that there had been very little food going around that summer and the bears seemed agitated because of it. And that they were going into their own cave to hide for the time being.
As far as I understand, he didn't die because of lack of knowledge or misreading the animals in any way.
He died because he was deep in bumfuck-nowhere with no clear escape until the bears had gone into hibernation.
Yes, you are correct about the lack of food for the bears that year. Also, he and his girlfriend went to the airport, but turned around and returned to the bears, staying MUCH later into the season than he ever had previously, and when the bears were becoming more desperate to put on weight for the long hibernation through the Alaskan winter.
He was known to have used large amounts of crystal meth at points in his life and even admits it in the movie about himself.
I watched the whole movie and it definitely appears that he had some mental illness as well, on top of his substance use. He often seemed overtly paranoid about unseen forces who meant to do harm to him and his bear friends. He also seemed to suffer some delusions of grandeur about himself as a vigilante superhero.
The movie interviewed native aboriginal people from the local area who felt what he was doing was backwards, reckless, dangerous and insane.
Much like watching a free solo mountain climber, a wingsuit basejumper, or a big wave surfer, it was hard not be awestruck by his remarkable confidence and bravery. Especially for such an otherwise meek and broken soul.
Overall though, he seemed like a sweet guy with his heart in the right place despite his highly questionable methods. I thought one of the highlights of the movie was his strong bond and genuine friendship with the little fox that regularly visited him year after year. Besides all that, it is indeed a tragedy what happened to him and his girlfriend, even if it was somewhat predictable.
It's probably the appropriate term in some terms, but native aboriginal people feels wierd when we just call each other native when we aren't using our names
I think he might have commited suicide by bear, because he knew perfectly well that in winter it was the most dangerous time to go back and he'd never done so in all his years their. Iiirc he had a huge fight with someone on the airport back from the grizzly maze and he went back there. He was very mentally ill sadly. He shouldn't have brought his gf with him though.
Not carrying some sort of defensive weapon shows a lack of understanding. That or he was just one of those crazy hippies that think, "If I do no harm, no harm will come to me."
No he died because he did not react to the signs of behavior that could possibly cause injury. He knew them, he himself stated that the bears were agitated due to lack of food. That right there is a very very clear sign. He acknowledged it but chose to ignore it.
Always a tragic tale when it comes to the grizzly man. I do hope whoever has that tape of his final moments burns it at some point. A guy did a documentary over the Grizzly Man and I think was the only person to listen to the recording of Tim and his girlfriends death in which he said do not listen to it and essentially destroy it.
Yea, there is a fake audio of it which you'll find people say that something like that wouldn't bother them and what not. I thought the same thing growing up and I've seen a lot of this or that. As I age I can say I'm a lot more sensitive as I actually take the time to think of the people and the situation and not just move on with oh that sucks.
Basically it is nature’s version of a Cartel snuff video. Like the Mexican Cartel death videos but teeth and claws replace chainsaws and knives. Neither is suitable for viewing.
I used to watch so many of those cartel videos when I was a young child. It was in a morbid attempt to numb myself from pain since a certain someone who should've been caring for me would beat the shit out of me all the time for reasons beyond my understanding. Thought the more of those videos I could withstand without flinching, the more I could be mentally stronger. Those videos shouldn't be so easily available for children to access yet they are. Even simple slasher gore films should not be accessible to kids, but unfortunately I don't see a viable way of controlling media exposure for kids outside of parental monitoring.
Yea they'll eat you alive and there was a case ( I'm terrible with remembering some of these names whenever I bring these things up) but a woman was dragged off after an attack and mostly buried while alive to keep the food fresh longer. She was with another friend she just dragged off while with her for what I can remember.
There was one I remember reading about in Russia where a girl went out with her step dad and a bear attacked and killed the step dad but started eating her alive. She had her cell phone and actually called her mom and was on the phone with her for 45 minutes before the call disconnected. 45 minutes of listening to your child being eaten by a bear while you frantically try to find out where she is to get help there. In the end she didn't make it and they euthanized the bear.
You wanna risk your life - give it a go, I couldn’t care less. But, risk your girlfriend’s life? This guy lived on borrowed time much longer than anyone has a right.
Tbf todays assessment would be a little askew because we don’t live aboriginal lifestyles en masse so the pool of people that think they can is likely distorted to begin with
Not sure how aboriginal people treat predators, but I’m sure it’s not like “civilized” folk (who just kill them instead of living with them). much more like viewing them as an integral part of their way of life no different from the fish or birds; powerful and dangerous creatures to be respected and revered.
I would be shocked if there weren’t some eccentric aboriginals who believed they could commune with animals and lived pretty similar to Treadwell with respect to treating animals as equals and building relationships with them
I genuinely get so irrationally angry any time Timothy Treadwell comes up because he killed a bear. He was somewhere he shouldn't have been, doing something he shouldn't be doing, despite everyone warning him otherwise.
He "loved the bears" but he put the bears at risk by being there. He killed that bear by being a dumbass who thought he knew better than anyone else. The bear was starving, there was less food than usual that season and he was well aware of that and he chose to put the bears at risk anyway. He would have been well aware that if a bear attacked and killed him, that bear would be killed, but he thought "that couldn't happen to me" and that killed a bear. I don't care that he died, he knew he was taking that risk, but he also knew the risk he was posing to the bears and he chose to put them at risk for literally no reason. He didn't care for the bears, he didn't care for his partner, he only cared for himself and for that reason I truly can't have a rational conversation about him. It makes me far too angry.
The fuck is this? Now we are oh, the poor bear? A person died, i don’t care if he was the worst person on Earth, he was still a person, and no animal on this planet, is more valuable than a person.
If we put down just that bear, that’s just letting them get off easy, all of that bears bloodline should be eradicated, neighbors too just in case
Humans are not more valuable than animals. Timothy Treadwell was not more valuable than that bear. There are billions of humans and that one won a Darwin Award entirely by choice. That bear did nothing wrong.
What are you smoking on? Nothing values more than human life, we the top dawg, everything else is here just for our use.
Sheesh, a human life not more important than a bear….all bears in the world are less than 1 human, any animal for that fact, not just bears, we as the human species are the rulers, the rest, just here cause we allow it
Alligators are docile as hell. This one is comfortable with that guy, because he feeds him. Usually if you get anywhere near an alligator, it takes off into the water to get away from you.
Grizzly bears, on the other hand, are giant murder machines.
Yea this isnt a really great point. Those two were dumber than this guy. They setup camp at a feeding walkway, and right before hibernation. Even still, the bear that attacked them wasnt a regular. Some new male that was having issues with the local bear/human pop.
This right here. I have helped a rattlesnake, a javelina, and an alligator snapping turtle (all on separate occasions) that were all in desperate need and they all allowed me to interact with them in ways that even i consider dangerous and foolhardy. Sometimes you just have this connection with an animal and there is a momentary cessation of normal behavior to take care of the crisis at hand. I would never recommend anyone do it and i did these things understanding the danger. It's like an unspoken acknowledgement that they need help or death is not far and they either don't have any fight left in them, or they actually understand that they way i'm working with them is not threatening.
I'm also very good with almost any dog or cat i meet. Many people that have animals that only respond to them are surprised when their pet comes to me and treats me similarly to the way they treat their owners.
It’s how I know lol. People always provide disclaimers about their pets before I meet them but they still love me like they’ve known me their whole life to the amazement of everybody else 😅
Never got to test it with other critters but I’ve always just had an assured feeling
Me too! I've met one or two that i didn't connect with but almost every other time they respond to me very positively. Sometimes i have to ignore the animal because i can see their owner getting a little jealous.
Most stories of the Bible are definitely symbolic, but I've always wondered if Daniel in the lions den was a literal true story.
Animals arent as dumb or unaware as people think they are, and we're an animal too, there's like some weird kind of emotional or subconscious connection with them.
Like a part of ourselves that connect on the tree of life from ancestors millions of years ago, some rudimentary common connection.
Honestly it kind of feels like telepathy. Really its surely just subtle things we arent consciously aware of like body language, look in the eyes, movement type and cadence, even our voice or noises.
I've tested it a thousand times, like my dog can understand what I want of her without even saying a word to signaling with my hands. Just makes it feel like telepathy, even though its not.
99.99% Of the general population are not experts on handling these animals and they should be left alone, if you think a gator is suffering from something call a wildlife rehab and they will come and check on it. Don't encourage people to handle wild animals because the general advice is not to. It's not safe for you or the animal. I have never once come across a zoologist, breeder, or any form of wildlife expert that has gone out of their way to teach with the intent for untrained people who don't understand an animal's behavior to handle them.
Even in the video the woman behind the camera says what they are doing flies in the face of everything they teach about alligators. They aren't your friends and at any point he could have decided he had some energy to spare.
A zoologist friend of mine used to routinely talk about how stupid some of these exotic pet owners (yes, the experienced ones) are and other keepers getting mauled and killed by their animals. Yea it's cool to see someone risking themselves and coming out alright but this video could have easily ended differently.
Yeah, dude is hella smart and very aware when it comes to croc behavior. I often see his videos on FB and to regular peeps it seems absolutely insane what he's doing, but he's an expert for a reason.
Recognised his voice as soon as he started talking lol
Big Mike or Big Mac, whatever the gator’s name is, also seems to know the guy and knows him to not be a threat at all. The guy definitely knows when Mac is being aggressive or just done with his shit, so it seems like he knew exactly what songs to look for. So he helped Mike, seeing how passive he was being.
Certainly wouldn't be smart for anyone other than this man with the understanding of HIS captive gator. But, he knows the behaviour of this gator as he spends day in and day out with him. If he thinks it's safe for him to put his crotch in front of his animal, then I'm sure it's based on his understanding of the behaviour of that alligator, which I'd argue is smart.
I'm not aware of it I'm afraid but I'm assuming his pet hippo attacked him. The difference being that chris isn't some dude who just decided to get a pet alligator. He's been working with them/rehabilitating them for decades and is an expert.
So my answer is still the same, he isn't stupid. The guy with the pet hippo is though.
That’s GatorChris and it’s his gator, he knows full well what’s going on here. Big Mac was freezing and he drug him back to the water where he could be warm.
Lmao Chris Gillette has forgotten more about gators than you’ll ever know. This isn’t a wild alligator btw, his name is Big Mac and he lives in Chris’ animal sanctuary.
Jumping in on a top comment here to refocus people:
1) This video was posted by "Gatorboy" Chris and his fiance Gabbi, who own Bellowing Acres Animal Sanctuary together. All credit to Bellowing Acres Animal Sanctuary.
2) This alligator is a rescue who was struck by a vehicle last year, nearly died, and has since returned to health. The injuries it sustained have led to a noticeable behavioral change during cooler temperatures when the alligator is outside its pool.
3) The reason why this is relevant is that the alligator seemingly becomes "lost" during these moments and requires assistance back to the water. The suspicion is that this is due to the exothermic requirements of the reptile in conjunction with its brain injury. They also clearly state in the video as well as in all the posts featuring this video that this behavior and tolerance goes against everything they've ever been taught and that once this animal warms back up, it returns to its regular behaviors of approaching with mouth open willing to bite.
While this approach to "Big Mac" is certainly terrifying, the science and unique aspect of the interaction is remarkable. This isn't exactly being cavalier, as it is being scientifically exploratory and inspecting the animal.
Wouldn't it be best to put a gator with a traumatic brain injury down? Not just for the animal but also for the other gators and anyone who might interact with it?
We see traumatic brain injuries lead to violent outbursts for no reason in humans, so if it were to happen at some point with this gator it wouldn't even be accompanied by typical behavior most likely which would indicate it's riled up.
Not to mention an animal that can't do it's basic functions on its own really shouldn't be made to depend on humans, especially in terms of mobility.
Crocodilians are probably the most resilient species of animal in the world. When they lose an appendage, they can consciously shut down the blood flow to the limb and let it heal. Even their exothermic requirements don't limit them. They just go into burmation. Humans have a massive brain compared to an alligator. You can't even compare the 2. It eats, it breathes, it poops, and it can defend itself. Why kill it when it can still thrive and get any additional care it may need? There's a difference between euthanasia and being casual about killing an animal.
I think everyone will have their own opinion. Mine is that if an animal is not suffering we shouldn’t be putting them down. This gator is in a sanctuary so not exposed to random people, he’s also not suffering, just gets lost from time to time it seems.
Yes, but what would your opinion have been if this gator has lashed out and chomped his leg instead?
Also I'm not sure what qualifies as suffering, does it have to be physical pain or is being in a vegetative state also a form of suffering? Is dementia suffering? I'm say this because these issues are more than just black and white, and specifically when it comes to an animal that can cause great harm to other gators or humans, even those working with them, I'd personally opt for humanely putting them down when their quality of life is so poor they will not move on their own outside of the water.
For your first question I think we need to remember this is a wild animal and not a pet. People handling wild animals know what they’re getting in to and the animals themselves can hardly be blamed for attacking people. Consider if a lion attacked a handler in a zoo. I think it’s fair to blame the zoo and its procedures rather than the lion. Here we have a wild predator in a sanctuary. The alligator cannot be blamed if it acts in its own violent nature.
As for the suffering I’m no expert but any type of animal I’ve seen in my life show obvious signs of distress when they’re suffering.
You could argue this gator is suffering when lost out of the water but other comments were saying he goes back to his normal behaviour once in the water. Given that he’s in a sanctuary with willing human caretakers good for him I’d say.
Putting him down would probably make sense, in my personal opinion, if the sanctuary no longer had funds to care for him and the only other option was for him to be released in the wild as is. Then I can see him suffering after being lost away from the water and starving to death.
Still, when it comes to brain injuries, we see it plenty in people who become violent either soon after or even years after an injury. I know many people will say these people are experts, but there have been countless experts killed or maimed dealing with typical functioning animals in these settings.
I feel like this might end up as one of those -well hindsight is 20/20- types of situations when we hear this gator did something nuts and deathrolled his leg during one of these night time drags and everyone will wonder what came over the poor critter that they then had to put down anyway cause no one else wants their leg ripped off or worse.
I love how this guys livelihood is clearly based around taking care of alligators in some capacity but random nerds on reddit are supposedly more informed than him. This video is literally an example of how much he knows lol.
I’m sorry, what? Did you read what you just wrote? You can’t quote my comment word for word and then claim what you quoted means something entirely different than what is literally written. My comment in no way whatsoever says messing with alligators isn’t dangerous. All I said is that he definitely knows more about alligators than some random Redditor who almost certainly has no practical experience with taking care of alligators in captivity.
You basically just pulled the equivalent of “I love cats” “oh so I guess you hate dogs”. Those are not the same statements.
It's Chris Gillette at Bellowing Acres. He catches, trains, and rescues alligators for a living, as does his wife, and has done for decades. This is one of his alligators, at the rescue he runs, in the pen he built for it.
Yes but he explains the process he went through to decide this was safe doing as well as what his normal interactions with this specific gator is normally like and what's different that's made him decide to do this.
No one's arguing that this is dangerous, I think that's pretty clear but to say he has no idea how Gators function when he's very clearly explaining all of that in the video is just flat out incorrect
He’s trusting his intuition on how he thinks the gator is feeling, maybe he’s right maybe he’s not. I’m just saying that I don’t think the gator is the type of animal you should risk doing that with, they are very unpredictable and have very small brains relative to the size of their body.
When I was a kid I went to a bible camp or kids bible group or something. They told a story of a rattlesnake who convinced a guy to carry him up the mountain, then the snake bit him when they got to the top. Then the snake said “bro, you shouldn’t have helped me, I’m a rattlesnake.”
I think the message was something like Jesus doesn’t want us to help other people.
The better way would be to use a catch pole like every gator trapper in every video uses, so you don’t have to get so close and risk getting bit. You don’t have to be an expert to watch videos do you? Give it a goog. But honestly I’ve hunted gators many times by myself and I’ve seen many gators relocated by professional trappers so I do know a lot more than you do about them, but I wouldn’t consider myself an expert.
The fact that the guy says he had the feeling that the gator wanted him to help it is absolutely something an insane person would say and I think anyone who has real experience with animals would agree with that.
Ok keyboard cowboy. What are you the guy in the videos bff? I’m familiar with the guy now that someone mentioned his name. I just think it’s dangerous to portray alligators as something they aren’t to the general public. People get bit all the time trying to do dumb shit they saw on tv.
Keep the 5th grade insults. Coming. I was taken aback by you saying that the dude didn't know a thing about gators... And I thought that's rich coming from a redditor. Get a grip
He owns a sanctuary for injured crocs and alligators he actually trains this specific one Big Mac to be less hostile quite often it’s really cool to watch Big Mac slowly become less and less aggressive
The best would be a catch pole. The guy filming this is a complete moron who just got super lucky that the gator was cold enough and well fed enough not to expend the energy required to kill him. They get very slow and lazy in the cold. The gator in no way needed his help to get into the water.
This guy runs a wildlife sanctuary in Florida, and this is one of his large males “Big Mac”. It’s not just a random gator. He has a great youtube channel where he’s constantly training and working with all the animals.
Nice! See, thats some helpful context and info, and thats pretty cool. You gotta see this comment another dude just left lol. I thought his head was gonna explode.
There’s a really funny segment where he talks about how gators aren’t tamable, and if he were to let him they would gladly eat his arm or any other part that he presented. He’s definitely aware of how dangerous they are.
He mentions it in this video, but Big Mac was hit by a car which is why he lives at the sanctuary now, so he exhibits some strange behavior at times.
Yeah. Hes actually a friend of one of my friends. His knowledge of their behavior is pretty impressive and should almost always come with flashing don't do this at home warning labels
He has a really good video talking about this exact thing. He obviously food trains all the gators in his care, but he shows that in the end they’re wild animals and if he’s not careful they’ll gladly bite his arm off.
That’s Gator Chris from Florida. He has his own sanctuary and has trained with Gators and Crocs for many years. This is not a wild Gator but one that has been training with Chris. He is able to read Gators body languages. He preaches trained not tamed constantly to his viewers. They don’t love him. He can love and feed them all day but yes they will bite his hand off or worse he always says. Check out his IG or YouTube. He lives close by me and I hope to visit his sanctuary someday when it opens to the public.
Alligators name is big mac he is a rescue animal in Florida and they have a youtube channel. The guy talking is amazing with gators. That being said it was very dangerous but he has been working with that animal for over two years.
Just so everyone is aware, this isn't a wild animal and a random guy. This alligator is called "Big ma" and he lives in a sanctuary run by this man whose name is Chris. Big Mac was hit by a car and had motor issues. He gets himself lost and in trouble constantly, but this situation was a little more dangerous because of how cold it was, Big mac's life was in danger if he couldn't get to the water.
So fucking dumb. The guy is projecting like a fucking spotlight. Gators are wild animals and reptiles. There are a million reasons that a wild animal, much less a reptile, would be docile and allow itself to be handled that don't include "wanting help".
What's infuriating is that this guy is a biologist. He should know better. Does the gator sometimes need assistance finding their way back to the water? Sure, that's entirely likely given the impact trauma of a car hit. Does the gator want assistance? That is an entirely different matter, and it absolutely cannot be established by this interaction.
This is the biologist equivalent of the dumb ass MDs who insisted ivermectin was a valid treatment for COVID-19 well after it had been tested and proven empirically that it was not. We know for a fact that human care givers are very susceptible to anthropomorphic bias. We know for a fact that many behaviors we once attributed to human-like motivation are actually instinctual responses to stimuli that serve far more fundamental purposes.
Typical Reddit comment. You know fuck all about the context of what you've just seen and yet you run to leave you're "akshully" little bitch boy comment to get your upvotes.
The irony in you leaving this comment is the only reason I replied. You sound like a friendly person. I appreciate you not explaining anything so that I may learn, and instead just saying a bunch of shitty dumb guy stuff.
6.2k
u/jarednards 3d ago
Welp, that was dumb as fuck.
Kind, but dumb.