Michigan Wildlife Officials Rescue Black Bear After 2-Year Struggle with Plastic Lid

The bear, a male, had been living with the blue lid tightly clamped around its neck while wandering through Montmorency County since it was first observed as a cub in 2023. It took until the end of May 2025 for the bear to be caught again on a trail camera (in Hillman) by a resident of the village, who immediately reported it to the Department of Natural Resources (DNR).

The biologists from DNR with no time to waste, thereupon searched for the bear and, on the 2nd of June, finally tranquilized and removed the lid, which had been figuratively broken and stuck even though the poor animal for the two years, possibly the injurious or worse situation it could have had if it did not come out sooner.

An announcement from the DNR indicated that the bear’s neck was the right size for the lid to be stuck in from a 55-gallon barrel – the common kind of barrel used to store bear bait like feed or grain in the back corner of someone’s house. However, while baiting bears is legal in Michigan, the containers used must observe regulations. Nevertheless, the lip on the cover was beyond permissible limits, and the bear’s safety was at stake

This is not an isolated case, say experts. When containers with a certain size of the opening on the lid are left in the wild, animals can dash in to get their heads stuck. Thankfully, this provided another argument for the ban, the DNR’s Cody Norton pointed out the at a simple erring can get spotlights on wildlife safety, as these situations can be life-threatening for the animals.

The case of the bear from Michigan is evidence that is needed to uncover the matter. This situation is especially remarkable in the nothern part of Lower Peninsula. The bear population in this area of Michigan has increased a whopping 55% from 2012-2022, compared to the 21% that they grew in the Upper Peninsula. The 13,000 number of black bears in the whole of Michigan is all the more impressive because it’s a figure that has only gone upward over the years with the thing named caused by the strict hunting license policy.

What the DNR wants from people is a series of specific responsible gestures for the safety of the bears. The director said that these would require: recycling containers, securing garbage and pet food, taking down bird feeders in the presence of bears, and never even thinking of approaching or feeding wild animals.

Thanks to the timely intervention of those who were around, and the Department of Natural Resources, the bear has been made free – a development expected to serve as a reminder of how common objects like a plastic lid can cause a grave danger to the wildlife as well as giving to everyone hope that such bear incidents can peacefully be resolved.