Fatal Alaska bear attack heard on 3-minute tape

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The graphic sounds of a fatal bear attack were recorded on tape, Alaska state troopers discovered Wednesday while reviewing a videotape recovered from the campsite where the bodies of wildlife author Timothy Treadwell and his girlfriend were found.

The recording is audio only and the screen remains blank for the three-minute recording.

Trooper Chris Hill said Treadwell might have been wearing a wireless microphone that was likely activated when he was attacked by the brown bear at Katmai National Park and Preserve.

"They’re both screaming, she’s telling him to play dead, then it changes to fighting back. He asks her to hit the bear," Hill said. "There’s so much noise going on, I don’t know what’s him and what might be an animal.

"It’s pretty disturbing. I keep hearing it in my mind."

The bodies of Treadwell, 46, and Amie Huguenard, 37, both of Malibu, Calif., were found near Kaflia Bay on Monday after an air taxi pilot arrived to pick them up. The pilot contacted the National Park Service and state troopers to report a brown bear was apparently sitting on top of human remains in the camp.

Much of the footage troopers recovered is closeup shots of bears, a subject for which Treadwell was well known. Some scenes have bears no more than a few feet away from Treadwell, co-author of "Among Grizzlies: Living With Wild Bears in Alaska." Others show a more timid Huguenard leaning away as bears come close to her on the bank of a river.

Hill said he was stunned by what he heard when the screen went blank.

"The audio starts while he’s being mauled and ends while he’s being mauled," he said. "It’s hard to forget."