{"id":206957,"date":"2025-06-23T05:58:19","date_gmt":"2025-06-23T05:58:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/206957\/"},"modified":"2025-06-23T05:58:19","modified_gmt":"2025-06-23T05:58:19","slug":"bear-freed-after-head-was-stuck-in-plastic-lid-for-2-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/206957\/","title":{"rendered":"Bear Freed After Head Was Stuck In Plastic Lid For 2 Years"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michigan wildlife experts finally were able to trap a black bear and remove a large lid that was stuck around his neck \u2014 for two years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty incredible that the bear survived and was able to feed itself,\u201d state bear specialist Cody Norton said Wednesday. \u201cThe neck was scarred and missing hair, but the bear was in much better condition than we expected it to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"InIn this image provided by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, DNS staffers, from left, Angela Kujawa, Sherry Raifsnider and Miranda VanCleave work to remove a lid from the neck of an immobilized black bear near Hillman, Michigan, on June 3, 2025. <\/p>\n

Michigan Department of Natural Resources via AP<\/p>\n

The bear first turned up on a trail camera as a cub in 2023 in the northern Lower Peninsula. After that, the Department of Natural Resources was on the lookout for the elusive animal with a hard plastic lid around the neck, Norton said.<\/p>\n

The bear appeared again on a camera in late May, still wearing the barrel lid, and the DNR responded by setting a cylindrical trap and safely luring him inside. The bear was immobilized with an injection and the lid was cut off in minutes on June 3. The bear eventually woke up and rambled away.<\/p>\n

\"InIn this image provided by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, the neck of a black bear is shown after a lid was removed after two years on June 3, 2025, near Hillman, Michigan.<\/p>\n

Michigan Department of Natural Resources via AP<\/p>\n

Angela Kujawa, a wildlife biologist who was at the scene, said she wondered about the bear\u2019s ability to climb trees with the uncomfortable accessory.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd he probably laid more on his back or side when he was resting,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Norton said it\u2019s not precisely known how the lid got stuck on the bear\u2019s neck. Bear baiting is legal in Michigan, but the hole on a barrel lid typically must be large enough to avoid what happened to this bear.<\/p>\n

\"InIn this image provided by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, wildlife biologist Angela Kujawa collects data from an immobilized black bear after a lid was removed from the animal\u2019s neck near Hillman, Michigan, on June 3, 2025. <\/p>\n

Michigan Department of Natural Resources via AP<\/p>\n

The bear weighed 110 pounds (49.9 kilograms), which is fairly typical for a 2-year-old.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were pleasantly surprised. It was still able to make a living like a pretty typical bear,\u201d Norton said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michigan wildlife experts finally were able to trap a black bear and remove a large lid that was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":206958,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3847],"tags":[933,29290,70,16,15,1717],"class_list":{"0":"post-206957","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-animals","9":"tag-bears","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-wildlife"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114731149603655128","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206957\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}