MONTMORENCY COUNTY, Mich. (WKRC) – A group of biologists finally managed to remove a plastic lid that had been choking an elusive bear cub for over two years.
According to a release from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR), biologists at the DNR’s branch in Atlanta, Michigan first spotted the bear on a trail camera in 2023, when he was just a young cub. The bear had somehow shoved his head through a 5-inch-wide hole in a blue plastic drum and although he was able to remove the lid from the drum, he was unable to remove his head from the lid, which was tightly constricting his neck.
Although the biologists wanted to remove the lid from the poor animal’s neck, the bear proved elusive and for two long years was only ever seen in fleeting pictures taken by trail cameras.
Finally, a landowner notified DNR in May that he spotted the bear on a trail camera, and that it still had the lid wrapped tightly around his neck. The plastic had slowly warped and embedded itself into the bear’s fur as it grew, but the animal was still alive and moving. The landowner allowed DNR biologists to set up a baited enclosure trap to safely capture the bear. Workers were then able to give the hurting animal anesthetics and, after two long years, finally cut the plastic lid off his neck.
Although the biologists said the bear had “significant scarring and an abscess on its neck,” they also noted that he was normal weight and seemed to reacclimate to his surroundings with no problems once he was released back into the wild after the lid was removed.