Bear with lid stuck on its neck for 2 years proved elusive. Now rescuers step in

For two years, a young black bear roamed Michigan with a lid to a 55-gallon drum stuck around its neck.

It was no doubt annoying for the 110-pound bear, but it was mostly all the 2-year-old cub knew.

First spotting the animal on a trail camera in 2023, a team from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources attempted to find the bear to remove the pesky lid, but the little guy kept disappearing.

Elusive for most of the next two years, the bear was most recently spotted in late May, when a Hillman resident discovered the animal on his property. Hillman is about a 15-mile drive from Atlanta, Michigan, where the bear was first spotted.

State biologists trapped the bear June 2, and a team from the department of natural resources anesthetized the animal before removing the lid.

The bear had “significant scarring and an abscess on its neck,” according to a June 18 news release.

“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,” said Cody Norton, the DNR’s bear, furbearer and small game specialist. “It’s important to remember that the opening diameter is more important than the size of the container.”

Officials said the lid’s original drum was likely “used by hunters to bait bear and by landowners to store materials that can attract bears.”

Those lids are only legal on private land, but they must have holes “either 1 inch or less in diameter or 22 inches or greater in diameter.”

This one, the department said, was only 5 inches around.

“It’s important to remember that the opening diameter is more important than the size of the container,” Norton said.

The bear was released once the anesthesia wore off, officials said.

This story was originally published June 18, 2025 at 3:04 PM with the headline "Bear with lid stuck on its neck for 2 years proved elusive. Now rescuers step in."