July 6, 2007: Benign bears befriend bruin benefactor

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Meet Alaskan Charlie Vandergaw. He's a friend to the bears, nursing them back to health when they're injured, feeding them, now even petting and riding them.

According to the Snopes entry found by xoB, the above was all documented by the Anchorage Daily News:

What goes on each summer at Vandergaw's remote homestead is so far from the ordinary as to be almost unbelievable. Visitors tell of him petting black and brown bears, playing with grizzly cubs while sows stand by, sitting on bears and teaching them tricks. His own photographs show even more. They capture him easing to within feet of breeding grizzlies and nursing an injured brown bear.

A visiting photographer is amazed to see head-and-shoulder shots of breeding grizzlies taken with a wide-angle lens -- photos that would require the photographer to be within feet, if not inches, of the bears.

There are photos of Vandergaw playing with grizzly cubs while their mother lounges nearby. There are pictures of gangs of bears around his cabin, of individual bears in his cabin, and even close-ups of a grizzly's injured mouth.

It might all seem unbelievable if not for the fact that his photos are confirmed, in effect, by those taken by other photographers and by the black bear wandering around the yard.

Wildlife officials are having none of it; they say he's only a dice roll away from a severe mauling. But according to Snopes, it's worse than that, they say he's a criminal:

As of April 2007, Alaska news sources reported that the state attorney general's office was considering bringing criminal and civil actions against Vandergaw for his continuing to violate state law by feeding wild bears.

More story and three more pics at the Snopes entry.