Bear freed weeks after getting its head stuck in a tight squeeze

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    ENOSBURG, Vermont (WPTZ) — A bear in northwestern Vermont got out of a really tight squeeze, thanks to a concerned homeowner and experts brought together by the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department.

The department shared video with NBC5 News showing a team responding to Enosburgh on Saturday. In the video, you can watch a group of people, including biologists, working to free a bear after it somehow got its head stuck in the top of an old metal milk can.

According to David Sausville of the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department, sightings of the bear with the metal around its neck dated back to at least May 10. A woman in Enosburgh recently saw the animal come around her property several times, so biologists set up a large trap to safely capture the bear without injuring it, Sausville said. Scientists then tranquilized the bear.

With the bear sleeping, the team cut the circular piece of metal off the animal. The bear was estimated to weigh 250 pounds, Sausville said.

“We are building out, and what people have to understand is with the expanding bear population over the past couple of decades, and with the bears becoming oriented towards human food because it’s readily available, everybody does live in bear country in Vermont,” Sausville said in an interview with NBC5 News.

Sausville said no one knows where the milk can came from or what was in it that attracted the bear. Still, he said the intervention serves as a reminder of how curious and how food-driven bears are.

The Fish & Wildlife Department asked Vermonters to take steps to discourage bears from hanging around backyards. Those include turning your compost regularly, not leaving garbage where bears can get at it, not keeping bird food outside in warmer months, and by putting up electric fences around backyard chicken coops.

“And we have to basically change our methods of living where we secure our trash and our compost,” Sausville said. “We have to be willing to tolerate certain wildlife moving through these areas, because as I said, we’ve built out into their habitats.”

The video of the team freeing the bear shows the animal waking up from the knock-out drug biologists gave it, after Sausville said they administered a tranquilizer-reversal medication. The video shows the bear running into the woods with the milk can having been fully removed.

Sausville said the bear’s ordeal surely impacted its hearing and vision. However, he said overall, the bear appeared quite healthy and looks like it had been eating OK. The bear had only a few small cuts and scrapes on its neck, Sausville said, adding that he expects the animal to make a full and quick recovery from those minor injuries.

If you have non-emergency concerns about wildlife on or around your property, you can call the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department at 802-828-1000. You could also email the department at fwinformation@vermont.gov.

However, if your concern is of an emergency nature, you are urged to contact law enforcement or your local game warden.

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