Bear with head stuck in metal milk can for month finally freed in Vermont, video shows

A black bear with a metal can stuck on its head eluded rescuers for more than three weeks until they were finally able to trap and help the animal.

A video shared by the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department on June 4 shows the bear being set free.

Starting about a month ago, residents of Enosburgh began reporting sightings of a bear with a metal milk can wrapped around its neck like a cone, the department said on Facebook.

While wildlife specialists aren’t sure how the bear got its head stuck, they orchestrated a plan to free it.

“Trapping a bear is actually very tricky,” Vermont Fish and Wildlife spokesperson Josh Morse told McClatchy News.

Property owners and game cameras had caught sight of the bear, helping direct the response team to good areas to set up traps for the roughly 250-pound creature, officials said.

“Unfortunately, this was not a surprising report,” wildlife management program manager David Sausville said in an email. “There have been similar occurrences, biologists removed a can about 10 years ago from another bear.”

The response team set up two culvert traps, which resemble large tubes, specifically designed for black bears, according to the wildlife department.

The team first set the traps May 10 and moved them around as the bear changed locations, Sausville said.

Every day someone had to check the traps and would update the team on a text thread, Sausville said. The group also organized around-the-clock staffing in case the bear entered one of the traps.

Finally, on June 1, 22 days after the group laid the traps, game wardens, biologists and a local resident worked together to nab the bear, sedate it using drugs and get rid of the can.

They placed cloth over the bear’s eyes and snout as they cut away at the can, the video shows. The team pried it away, protecting the animal from the jagged edges, and the bear was free.

“The can surely had an impact on the bear’s hearing and vision, but overall it appeared quite healthy and only had a few minor scratches,” the department said in the video.

A video taken after the operation shows the bear snapping out of its stupor and getting to its feet before bolting in the woods, can-free.

Black bears, which are the smallest of the three North American bear species, are the only type of bear found in Vermont.

“If you live in Vermont, you live in bear country, and we are all responsible for discouraging bears from seeing our yards as food sources,” the department said. “Coexistence is key for bears’ future in Vermont and our part in that includes keeping our food, compost and waste items cleaned up or secure.”

Enosburgh is a small town in northern Vermont near the Canadian border.