A Michigan bear roamed the woods for two years with an awful lid on his neck. Not anymore.

DNS staffers work to remove a lid from the neck of an immobilized black bear near Hillman, Michigan, on June 3, 2025. (Michigan Department of Natural Resources via AP)

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 immobilized with an injection and the lid was cut off in minutes on June 3. The bear eventually woke up and rambled away.

Angela Kujawa, a wildlife biologist who was at the scene, said she wondered about the bear’s ability to climb trees with the uncomfortable accessory.

“And he probably laid more on his back or side when he was resting,” she said.

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.

The bear weighed 110 pounds (49.9 kilograms), which is fairly typical for a 2-year-old.

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

Ed White, The Associated Press