Wildlife experts remove plastic lid that was stuck on bear’s neck

Michigan wildlife experts finally were able to trap a black bear and remove a large lid that was stuck around his neck — for two years.

“It’s pretty incredible that the bear survived and was able to feed itself,” state bear specialist Cody Norton said Wednesday. “The neck was scarred and missing hair, but the bear was in much better condition than we expected it to be.”

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.

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 anesthetized, and the lid was cut off on June 3. He eventually woke up and rambled away.

Norton said it’s not precisely known how the lid got stuck on the bear’s 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.

It also isn’t known how the 110-pound (49.9-kilogram) bear slept through winters wearing the uncomfortable accessory.

“We were pleasantly surprised. It was still able to make a living like a pretty typical bear,” Norton said.