In October 2003, Treadwell and his girlfriend,
physician assistant Amie Huguenard (born October 23, 1965 in
Buffalo, New York), visited
Katmai National Park's
Kodiak Island. In the film
Grizzly Man, Werner Herzog states that according to Treadwell's diaries, Huguenard feared bears and felt deeply uncomfortable in their presence. Her final journal entries indicated that she wanted to be away from Katmai.
[9] Treadwell chose to set his campsite near a salmon stream where grizzlies commonly feed in autumn. Treadwell was in the park later in the year than usual,[2] at a time when bears struggle to gain as much fat as possible before winter, and limited food supplies cause them to be more aggressive than in other months. Food was scarce that fall, causing the grizzly bears to be even more aggressive than usual.
Treadwell was to leave the park at his usual time of year but extended his stay a week in an effort to locate a favorite female brown bear. He said he hated modern civilization and felt better in nature with the bears than he did in big cities around humans. He repeatedly said he hated humans, too. The bears he had been used to during the summer had already gone into
hibernation, and bears that Treadwell did not know from other parts of the park were moving into the area. Some of the last footage taken by Treadwell, hours before his death, includes video of a bear diving into the river repeatedly for a piece of dead salmon. Treadwell mentioned in the footage that he did not feel entirely comfortable around that particular bear. In
Grizzly Man, Herzog posits that Treadwell may have filmed the very bear that killed him.