In a remarkable tale of survival, Michigan wildlife experts successfully freed a black bear from a plastic lid that had been stuck around its neck for two years.
The bear, first spotted as a cub in 2023 on a trail camera in the northern Lower Peninsula, had been living with the burdensome lid, which had become a dangerous and uncomfortable “necklace.”
“It’s pretty incredible that the bear survived and was able to feed itself,” said Cody Norton, a bear specialist with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR). “The neck was scarred and missing hair, but the bear was in much better condition than we expected it to be.”
The DNR had been on high alert since the bear’s initial sighting, monitoring for the animal with the hard plastic lid encircling its neck. The bear reappeared on a camera in late May, still carrying the hazardous accessory. Acting swiftly, the DNR deployed a cylindrical trap and successfully lured the bear inside. On June 3, the bear was anesthetized, allowing experts to carefully cut off the lid. After the procedure, the bear awoke and wandered back into the wild.
The exact cause of the lid becoming lodged around the bear’s neck remains unclear. In Michigan, bear baiting is legal, but regulations typically require that holes in barrel lids be large enough to prevent such incidents. How the 110-pound (49.9-kilogram) bear managed to survive two winters with the uncomfortable lid—enduring hibernation and foraging—remains a mystery.
“We were pleasantly surprised. It was still able to make a living like a pretty typical bear,” Norton remarked, highlighting the animal’s resilience.
This heartwarming rescue underscores the dangers of human-made objects in wildlife habitats and the incredible adaptability of nature’s creatures.