Maul Story 4 (Not for the Squeamish): Turns out there is an audiotape of the last three minutes of Timothy Treadwell’s life, which captures his mauling by a bear in the Katmai National Park and Preserve. Police speculate that he might have been wearing a sound-activated mike when he was attacked. “Get out of here. I’m getting killed,” Treadwell yelled to his girlfriend, Amie Huguenard. Huguenard can be heard yelling, amid the scuffling and screaming, “play dead,” which is the recommended initial response to a bear attack. When the bear keeps laying into Treadwell, she yells “fight back,” which is a not very attractive Option 2. Shortly thereafter, Treadwell pleads “hit him with a pan.” Then the tape goes dead. The Anchorage Daily News has the full story, plus a lot more background on Treadwell’s apparent compulsion to get really, really close to bears. He claimed he could calm them with his sing-song voice, and tell from their body language whether they were about to get aggressive. Apparently not. But at least he died doing something he loved….and not in a road rage accident commuting to a cubicle.

Bear-Boy Treadwell and girlfriend Amie Huguenard

Photos: Anchorage Daily News; Huguenard courtesy of Kathie Stowell