HARMONICA PLAYER WALKS INTO WOODS & BEARS FOLLOW HIM!
ANCHORAGE, AK – Experts are trying to understand the strange power that draws wild grizzly bears to harmonica player Tom Greyle and makes them follow him out of the woods into the city! A modern-day pied piper.
Over the past six years, Greyle, known as “the grizzly bear pied piper,” has been the subject of more than 20 articles in scientific publications worldwide, including the French Journal of Science and the American compendium of Zoological Research.
His strange story began one night in 2014 when the likable blues musician and his wife were camping in Denali National Park.
“I was playing my harmonic, sitting by the fire with my wife when we heard a rustling in the underbrush,” says Greyle, 35.
“When we turned around four grizzlies were standing there, swaying back and forth to the music. It scared us half to death.
“But the more I looked at them, the less scary they seemed.
“I got the feeling they were digging my sound. I kept playing and got up and walked around. Where I went, they followed me.”
The number of grizzlies grew from four to 17 – all fo them drawn to the sound of his music. Grizzly bears follow the harmonica player.
Since then the same thing has occurred every time he goes into the woods – grizzly bears follow him. And every time he leaves to come back to the city, at least 10 of the beasts come with him. They return to the woods only when Greyle stops playing.
WHY DO THEY FOLLOW THE GRIZZLY PIED PIPER?
Experts have various theories, but no concrete answers as to why the bears find Greyle so irresistible. Some believe the sound of the music creates a brain imbalance in the animals that soothes their ears and temporarily suspends their natural fear of man.
Others believe it has to do with odor – that when Greyle plays his music his body creates pheromones that draw the creatures.
But musicologist Dr. Linda Tromack, who has been studying and reporting on the bizarre phenomenon since 2015, believes it’s silly to search for complicated scientific reasons.
“Why look any farther than the obvious,” says the 36-year-old researcher. “It’s simply the magic of the music itself. You either feel it or you don’t. Over the years, civilized human beings have become so inhibited and logical, that – with a few exceptions – we’ve forgotten how to feel. Tom Greyle remembers. And so do the bears. Their response to his music is perfectly natural. They like what they hear and they want to hear more.”
