'Bear Man' prepares defense against state charges

Charlie Vandergaw has been coexisting with bears this way for the last 20 years, and he wants to be left alone. That is not likely to happen now that the state is using a beefed-up law to prosecute Vandergaw for feeding bears.

The Charlie Vandergaw story

Bear Haven man faces state game charges

After 20 years of enticing bears into a remote compound tucked away in a little visited corner of the Yentna River valley, retired Anchorage school teacher Charlie Vandergaw said last fall he was ready to end his bear-taming shenanigans.

PDF: Vandergaw charging document

Video: Animal Planet clips of Vandergaw and bears

Photo gallery: Vandergaw's bears

'Bear man' TV series begins broadcasts

The Animal Planet television series about bear man Charlie Vandergaw, the retired Anchorage teacher who has spent more than 20 summers living with wild bears at his remote cabin in the Yentna River drainage, has begun airing.

Bear 'haven' on wrong side of law

Long unhappy with Charlie Vandergaw's intimate relationship with wild Alaska bears, state authorities are moving to put his Bear Haven out of business. Vandergaw has already been cited for feeding bears, but the charges levied against him next could go much farther.

Bear-ly believable, Brits say

Bear Man

Retiree welcomes neighborhood bears

Fifty miles northwest of Alaska's largest city, the roadless hills and boggy swamps of the Yentna River Valley have for years hidden the secret of bear man Charlie Vandergaw.

Bear-ly believable, Brits say

Anchorage may have a new international celebrity: a nearly 70-year-old retired teacher who has spent the past two decades hiding from the public eye in an effort to conceal his intimate relationship with a gang of black and grizzly bears.

Video: 'The Man Who Lives With Bears' trailer