Charlie Vandergaw

Stranger Among Bears is a television documentary about Charlie Vandergaw, an elderly man who has lived in Alaska for several decades and illegally fed grizzly and black bears on his property for many of those years. The documentary was popularly aired on the cable TV station Animal Planet.

Contents

The series introduce Vandergaw's perspective on bears and a different approach to the wild animals. Vandergaw tried to create an environment with arguable success where bears can coexist with humans as closely as possible. His aim was to understand them better to communicate them in ways they understand and to be on friendly terms with the wild animals without actually taming them. He admitted this would have not been possible without feeding the bears, since the animals show a lot more interest in food than anything else. They can be seen almost constantly searching for food. Bears reveal their playful yet highly destructive nature in the series. Even the cubs are evidently strong enough to make huge amount of damage in a human dwelling in a very short amount of time. Charlie tries to be patient with them, but after a while he just gets tired of it. It also shows his struggle with the authorities, who take a more traditional and arguably more healthy approach to handling coexistence with bears, which ends in his admission of defeat.

The bears visiting Bear Haven

In the first episode, mostly black bears are shown, and when hunters visit Charlie's property, they only interact with black bears. These bears are more docile than their larger cousins, the grizzlies. Grizzlies are apex predators and more aggressive, while black bears may see a fully-grown man as more their physical equal. Charlie Vandergaw loves his black bears, but he becomes particularly excited when the grizzlies begin showing up. When they do, however, the seemingly idyllic Bear Haven becomes a very different place. Even among black bears, the seemingly peaceful coexistence is just a dream, as adult males will occasionally attempt to kill cubs, which the mother will defend. The relationship between black bears and grizzlies is strained at best. Grizzlies do not tolerate the presence of black bears well, often confronting and intimidating the smaller bears. Without someone feeding these animals, they would never tolerate each other's close presence. Also, befriending a hungry bear has potentially tragic consequences. One of Charlie's favorite bears is a young female grizzly named Misty, and appears not long after her brother, Tank. Cookie, a fully adult grizzly matriarch, has the most powerful presence and is possibly the most dangerous bear at Bear Haven. Eric, an adult male black bear, is the most sociable, and he is even invited in the house at times. Charlie is quite fond of him.

Interaction with bears

Aside from feeding the bears often from his own hand, Vandergaw is very physical with some of them. Petting them like dogs, touching them, talking to them, using his considerable understanding of the animals behavior to keep him safe. He can tell the bears visiting Bear Haven apart and know them all by names he gave them over the years. Throughout the series Charlie shows great respect for the bears physical might and refrains from startling them or setting them off in other ways. When a bear is upset with him he shows little concern and makes no threatening or fleeing gestures. Throughout the series Charlie is shown hitting the bears from time to time, usually when a bear gets out of line, which is a very dangerous situation that can escalate into a mauling in a heartbeat. The quote "NO BITING! NO BITING!" and other verbal reprimands are repeated a lot. Some bears appear to be extremely ill mannered and will not miss a chance to bite an unsuspecting human, but they seem to respect the heavy-handed approach and especially the stick. They are obviously unhurt by the beating and appear to handle it like normal social interaction and a fair warning. The old man often slaps the younger grizzlies or black bears with his hand and uses a stick when he has to settle an older much more dangerous grizzly.

Controversy

Bears normally fear humans, avoiding them whenever possible. However, close association like Vandergaw's, is believed to remove the bears' natural reluctance to approach humans, thus leading to potentially dangerous, and even fatal encounters.

Familiarization is a tool for allowing humans to spend time among bears, but when cameraman Richard Terry spent time at Vandergaw's self-proclaimed bear sanctuary to film, he mindlessly ascended the same tree occupied by a yearling bear cub that luckily only resulted in mild lacerations on his right ankle and foot. Over the years that Vandergaw had been feeding the bears, he also sustained several bite wounds. Vandergaw, a former hunter, confesses he once killed many bears. In the show, Vandergaw would touch, pet, and even film the bears in a manner similar to the eco-warrior, Timothy Treadwell, who was eventually killed and devoured by grizzlies.

In the documentary's conclusion, Vandergaw was charged and convicted of illegally feeding bears. He received a $20,000 fine and a suspended sentence. He placed an electric fence around his property to keep the bears away from the cabin located on Bear Haven grounds.

Each episode opened with the following disclaimer: The following program contains scenes of a man feeding wild bears. Such activity is dangerous and illegal.

External links

• Stranger Among Bears at Discovery.com