A baby black bear who had been roaming around with a plastic lid over its neck for two years has finally been freed.
The two-year-old bear was first spotted in 2023 when it was a small cub on trail camera photos with the lid around its neck in Michigan.
Biologists at the Department of Natural Resources have attempted to locate the suffering cub for years, but the black bear proved elusive.
The cub occasionally popped up on trail cameras over the last two years, just to disappear a day later.
A breakthrough came in May when a resident of Hillman, a town outside of Lewiston with a population under 1,000, spotted the trapped bear.
The resident alerted biologists, and the Department of Natural Resources set up a trap to catch the bear.
A baited enclosure captured the black bear on June 2, and scientists gave it anesthesia to relieve the bear from the plastic lid. The black bear’s measurements were and it only weighed 110 pounds.
The animal had suffered significant scarring and had an infection on its neck from the lid, but the department said it was healthy otherwise.
The suffering black bear kept evading scientists until a resident spotted it on a trail camera and reported it to DNR
DNR created a trap and removed the plastic lid after administering anesthesia to the two-year-old black bear
The black bear weighed 110 pounds and appeared healthy except for scarring from the lid
After the anesthetics wore off, scientists released the black bear into the wild, free at last.
Cody Norton of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources said the bear’s suffering was a lesson to practicing safe bear baiting methods.
Bear baiting is legal in the state on private land, but hunters are prohibited from using containers between one and 22 inches in diameter, according to the DNR.
Scientists didn’t know how the bear got stuck, but noted that the lid seemed to fit the containers that hunters use to lure black bears.
Hunters put chicken feed or other attracting materials in the containers to lure the bears before killing them.
The bear suffered significant scarring and had an infection on its neck from the confining container
Despite the damage to its neck, the bear was released back into the wild, free at last
Norton also noted that the bear could’ve gotten stuck after rummaging through garbage.
‘Container openings of a certain size can result in bears and other wildlife getting their heads or other body parts stuck in them, leading to injury or death,’ Norton said.
The DNR advises those who live in areas with a high black bear population to securely dispose of food, garbage, and recycling.
Leaving pet food outdoors, failing to clean outdoor grills, and placing bird feeders outside can also attract bears.
