A 2-year-old black bear was finally freed from its misery after wildlife officials removed a plastic lid stuck on its neck for almost two years.
Wildlife biologists in Montmorency County, Michigan, removed the plastic lid from the young male bear’s neck earlier this month after it was captured and sedated the animal on June 2, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) said in a June 18 news release. Although the bear was otherwise healthy after the procedure, weighing 110 pounds, “fairly standard” for a growing 2-year-old bear, according to the DNR, it had “significant scarring and an abscess on its neck.”
It is not exactly known where or how the bear got its head stuck in the plastic lid’s 5-inch hole, officials said, adding the blue lid is similar to that of the “55-gallon drums used by hunters to bait bear and by landowners to store materials that can attract bears, such as chicken feed.”
Baiting to hunt bears is legal in Michigan, but bait containers can only be used on private land and “may only have holes that are either 1 inch or less in diameter or 22 inches or greater in diameter,” the DNR said.
Bear first spotted in 2023
Biologists first found out about the bear in 2023 after “seeing trail camera photos of the then-cub with its head stuck in the lid,” DNR officials said. However, the elusive bear would be hard to nail down over the next two years, except for rare occasions, when it would be spotted on trail camera photos, only to disappear again in the next day or two.
Finally, in late May, a Hillman resident spotted the bear in trail camera photos taken on his property and alerted the DNR.
“With the landowner’s permission, state biologists set up a baited enclosure trap and caught the animal safely on June 2,” the DNR said, adding the bear was released back onto the property after the lid was cut off and necessary information regarding it was collected. Hillman in northern Michigan is about 230 miles from Detroit.
Pictures: Wildlife officials remove plastic lid from bear’s neck
State bear specialist Cody Norton advised landowners to be “BearWise” and actively “do their part” by recycling or crushing containers, such as empty cheeseball tubs, and being mindful about 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. “It’s important to remember that the opening diameter is more important than the size of the container.”
How to keep bears away from property
Michigan is home to about 13,000 black bears, with 1,700 of them in the northern Lower Peninsula, per the DNR.
The agency recommends the following to avoid conflicts with bears:
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Never intentionally feed a bear.
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Remove potential food sources, like bird feeders, from your yard and avoid feeding birds in the spring, summer and fall, when bears are most active. Keep pet food secured.
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Keep garbage and odor at a minimum by regularly removing trash and cleaning containers with disinfectant. Keep garbage in a secured area or a container with a metal, lockable lid until disposal.
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Keep grills and picnic tables clean.
Saman Shafiq is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at [email protected] and follow her on X and Instagram @saman_shafiq7.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Plastic lid removed from black bear’s neck after 2 years in Michigan
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