Charles, Charles, Charles... Charles. Chuck.

Let me tell you something about Bear Men.

Training bears to associate humans with food . . . yeah, that's really a smart move.

True @2.

Unfortunately, we've been doing this for literally as long as we've been dumping our garbage in rural landfills.

This dude is awesome.

You've got to be very much in touch with your body language and energy to pull that shit off, although it is a gamble every time.

I wonder if he's ever seen that Grizzly Man movie? Shit was all good for him for a while too...

This dude is not awesome. He is taking his love of bears and inadvertently harming them. Not only is he destined for a "Grizzly Man" type fate, but he is fucking over the bears as well. Screw this guy.

Yeah, but Treadwell was killed by an unfamiliar bear who came into the territory later in the season, when Treadwell was usually gone. If he'd stuck to his normal routine, it likely wouldn't have happened.

Which is not to say that a similar thing could happen to this guy, but as he said, he's accepted the risks. I respect him for it, just as I respected Treadwell. The experience of communing with these bears must be truly amazing for a person to take such a risk. Kind of like walking on the moon -- not a risk I'm prepared to take, but I'm glad others do.

@, 6, how is he harming them? I ask this out of real ignorance.

simple charles...he harms them by getting them to associate humans with food. not humans AS food, but humans as a source for easily obtained food. when the bear wanders in to someone else's backyard, someone else who does not want the bear there, then there is trouble.

Charles, read my post @2. A bear that associates humans with food almost invariably equals "dead bear."

Bears are so freaking cute. But they will eat you. Surely the flying spaghetti monster has a sense of humor.

have any of you watched the show? it is one of the most remarkable programs I have even seen.

While I will agree that in general, "training" bears to associate humans with food is extraordinarily dangerous (to the bear); the AK wildlife officials should let Vandergaw be. Bear Haven is ridiculously remote; you can't even get there without a small single engine plane. One of his bears would have to travel far out of range to encounter another backyard.

not saying this is something we should all aspire to, but I think it is terrible to make him stop. Sometimes we should recognize a unique situation & let it be. Taking this from him will be devastating.

This struck me as a normal slog post that could've been written by most any of The Stranger's staff until I read "Also, if he is the Bear Man, where is the Bear Woman in these photos?"

Charles. You are such a strange person. Have you ever considered getting with Karl Pilkington?

I would actually really love to see another film headed up by Charles about some abstract facet of urban life with a focus on some seemingly mundane non-place like Capitol Hill. Say what you will, Charles has a habit of turning boring subjects really interesting, even if you think he sounds crazy while doing it.

@ 9, got it.

Look guys, as I said above, we've already trained bears into associating humans with food, and the only way to STOP this would be for us humans to STOP dumping our food waste in places the bears can access.

This one guy handing out goodies to his local bear population in AK isn't doing any more harm than the hundreds of thousands of citizens living in cul-de-sacs in what was previously undeveloped rural land on the East Side do on a regular basis.

at 8, if a bear comes near the village that bear gets shot. its a fact of life and neccessary. anchorage might tag it and release it farther away but they will come back and eventually get shot.

Someone buy the rights to make a "Gentle Ben" movie and sign this guy to a contract!

"A fed bear is a dead bear" is the saying.

Wow, I don't remotely approve of what this guy is doing, but that is an awesome picture. Those claws!!

Credit where credit is due, Charles. Your last paragraph in this post--starting with "Look at those claws!" and ending with "Why do I think a bear took those pictures?" is probably the most enjoyable thing of yours I've ever read.

No snark there. It made me chuckle.

Makes me regret missing you at Celebrity Open Mic. Next time for sure!

Mmmmmmm...Bearclaw.

Caption: "Hold still while I insert your ENTIRE HEAD between my gaping jaws. Ha ha, just kidding (for now)."

The native folks up there have it right. You respect the bear and you leave the bear alone.

Indeed, Charles, you frequently frustrate me, but this is lovely. "Nothing but death can be found in those claws." So true. Grizzly bears and white sharks scare the hell out of me for no good reason. (Maybe just like you frequently frustrate me for no good reason. I take full responsibility for that.)

Death at the claws of these bears he knows is no more inevitable than death by cigarettes for a smoker, or getting killed by a person when you live in a city. You choose what risks you take in order to make life bearable. (I hate myself now)

The guy's been doing this for a really long time. It sounds like he moved far enough away from other communities so he could hang out with bears without endangering anyone else.

Also, bears are pretty reasonable animals when they are well fed and healthy. People go crazy when they are starving and sick too. He's feeding the bears. That may make him safer living in bear country than the other thing.

I love how Charles writes "Nothing but death can be found in those claws" immediately below a picture that directly and obviously contradicts that assertion. And then goes rambling off on the subject of females, even though the story has nothing to do with females. Quintessential Mudede. The only thing that would make it more quintessentially Mudede would be to add a picture of an attractive woman in a skimpy bear outfit.

Lucky he was in Alaska, in Texas the penalty is death! Nature is as much random as it is planned. So one bear gets the crazy idea that humans give them food. Considering how much we have, are you really worried about the bears eating all our food? I mean if the small child can't run faster than a bear, that's his own damn fault.