Bear With Plastic Lid Stuck Over His Head For 2 Years Finally Freed

A bear with a plastic lid stuck around his neck for two years has finally been freed.

The young black bear in Michigan had accidentally gotten his head stuck in the lid’s 5-inch hole when he was a cub and had been spotted on trail cams at the time. Residents in the area had sporadically seen the bear over the following years, but Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) could not reach the locations in time to capture him.

Miraculously, the bear managed to survive despite the lid’s choke hold around his neck. Finally, on June 2nd, the DNR received an alert from a resident who spotted the bear on their property. This time, they were able to reach the location in time to anesthetize the bear and remove the lid.

Wildlife biologists in Montmorency County managed to cut the lid off his neck. It had caused significant scarring and an abscess. The biologists gave the bear antibiotics to treat the abscess and tagged his ear. They did not place a detection collar around his neck because of the scarring.

“It’s pretty incredible that the bear survived and was able to feed itself,” state bear specialist Cody Norton told The Associated Press. “The neck was scarred and missing hair, but the bear was in much better condition than we expected it to be.”

Officials are not sure how the bear got his head stuck in the lid, but noted that the lid was “similar to those that fit 55-gallon drums used by hunters to bait bear and by landowners to store materials that can attract bears, such as chicken feed.”

The DNR noted that, by law, bait containers must have holes either 1 inch or less in diameter or 22 inches or greater, so that wildlife don’t get stuck in them. Wildlife advocates and the DNR are hoping the bear’s story helps spread the word to safety-proof any container to protect wildlife from suffering as this poor bear did.