BERRIEN COUNTY, Mich. -- Michigan DNR officers are celebrating a small victory for the department and a giant win for a young male bear in the northern part of the lower peninsula.

"In a case that highlights the importance of Michigan’s bear-baiting regulations, state wildlife biologists in Montmorency County recently removed a plastic lid from the neck of a young black bear that had carried the encumbrance around for two years," a DNR spokesperson said.

The department does not know exactly where or how the bear got its head stuck in a five-inch hole in the lid, but they noted the blue plastic lid is similar to those that fit 55-gallon drums used by hunters to bait bear and by landowners to store materials that can attract bears, like chicken feed.

While baiting is a legal method for hunting bears in Michigan, the DNR reminds Michiganders that bait containers can only be used on private land and may only have holes that are either one inch or less in diameter or 22 inches or greater in diameter.

“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.”

Biologists at the DNR’s Atlanta, Mich. field office first spotted the bear in 2023 in trail camera photos of the then-cub with its head stuck in the lid.

"The bear would prove elusive over the next two years, occasionally appearing on other trail camera photos but then disappearing after a day or so," the DNR said.

"Then, in late May, a Hillman resident spotted the bear in trail camera photos taken on his wooded acreage and alerted the DNR. With the landowner’s permission, state biologists set up a baited enclosure trap and caught the animal safely on June 2. After anesthetizing the bear, they cut the lid off its neck and collected body measurements and other data."

Michigan DNR

Officials say the bear weighed 110 pounds, which is fairly standard for a two-year-old bear that’s still growing.

"It had significant scarring and an abscess on its neck but otherwise seemed healthy," the DNR said.

"Once the anesthesia wore off, the bear was released back onto the property."

Norton said the trapping, chemical immobilizing and data-collecting effort provided DNR staff with valuable training and information that can inform future research and bear-management strategies. Michigan is home to about 13,000 black bears – 1,700 of them in the northern Lower Peninsula.