The Grizzly Maze: Timothy Treadwell's fatal obsession with Alaskan bears Hardcover - 2005

by Nick Jans

In the tradition of Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild and Peter Jenkins's Looking for Alaska, a riveting adventure story of one man's passion to understand and protect the grizzly bear and his last foolhardy, violent encounter with one

Ursus arctos horribilis, commonly known as the grizzly or brown bear, is one of the most feared animals on the planet. As its most outspoken protector, Timothy Treadwell tirelessly sought to overturn the perception of grizzlies as dangerously aggressive. It was therefore a media sensation when in October 2003 Treadwell and his girlfriend were fatally mauled by a bear in Alaska's Katmai National Park, the first such attack in the park in eighty-five years. The horrifying audiotape of Treadwell's final, frantic screams begged the question: How could this happen?

In The Grizzly Maze, Nick Jans, who for years has written expertly and lyrically about the Alaskan wilderness, ventures to answer this question. Based on exclusive access to the killing site and his own and other's expert knowledge of Alaskan bears, Jans plots out Treadwell's final expedition and encounter with the grizzly. In doing so, Jans provides a moving and complex portrait of the man known as the 'Bear Whisperer,' whose controversial ideas earned him the scorn of hunters, the adoration of some animal lovers, and the skepticism of naturalists. The Grizzly Maze also offers a definitive, close-up look at bears, bear behavior, and our complicated relationship with them. It promises to be the blockbuster adventure read of the season.