Once upon a time in the Michigan woods, a young black bear went about his business. He wandered, foraged, napped in the shade, and learned the rhythm of the forest. But for two long years, he did all of this with a massive plastic ring trapped around his neck.

By all accounts, the unfortunate bear must have been accessorized around the neck all his life. By the time he was first captured on a trail camera in 2023, the bear (then a cub) was already wearing a wide blue plastic collar. It was the lid with two holes from a 55-gallon barrel, likely used by hunters to bait game. And it had somehow slipped over his head, where it stayed.

Two years later, in June, Michigan wildlife officials finally caught up with the now two-year-old bear. They tranquilized him, removed the lid, and set him free — a little lighter, a little groggy, and a lot luckier than anyone expected.

A Collar of Human Making

The lid’s hole was five inches wide — just enough for a young cub’s head to fit through. As the bear grew, so did the pressure from the strong plastic that didn’t budge. The ring didn’t break or slide off. It stayed in place, digging into his thickening neck.

And yet, he survived.

He managed to survive, eat, grow, and evade humans with a big blue plastic disc around his neck for all this time.

Cody Norton, a specialist with Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources, has seen plenty of strange bear predicaments in his career, but this one stood out. “It’s important to remember that the opening diameter is more important than the size of the container,” he said, advising people to be more mindful of how wildlife might get stuck in discarded containers. These should ideally be crushed or recycled.

Under Michigan law, bait containers used for hunting must have holes either smaller than one inch or larger than 22 inches in diameter. That’s precisely to avoid situations like this. But those rules don’t always reach the woods, where people often repurpose their old containers and lids. As a result of the irresponsible deployment of such a container, at least one bear had to suffer for a very long time.

Still, no one expected the bear to endure quite so well.

When he was finally captured in early June, he weighed around 110 pounds — “fairly standard” for a healthy 2-year-old, officials said. The plastic had left behind deep scarring and even an abscess, but otherwise, he was in remarkable shape.

The Chase and the Release

This story ultimately has a happy ending, thanks to the bear’s stubbornness to go on his merry way, as well as the persistence of humans trying to help.

Wildlife biologists tracked him on and off for two years through trail cam sightings across Montmorency County in northern Michigan. He would appear for a moment, then vanish for weeks. Attempts to locate him in person failed again and again.

In late May, a resident in the small town of Hillman (about 230 miles from Detroit) caught him on a trail cam again. With the landowner’s permission, the DNR moved quickly.

Sherry Raifsnider, a wildlife assistant with the department, helped set a cylindrical trap baited just right. But the process wasn’t easy.

“It’s not an easy task to trap a specific bear,” she told The New York Times. Other, larger bears came sniffing around too. “I couldn’t sleep, praying the bear we needed would make his way into the trap.”

When the trap finally sprang shut, there he was.

“It was very emotional knowing I trapped the bear we needed,” she said.

A Life, Unencumbered

On June 2, officials sedated the bear, carefully sliced off the plastic ring, and took the opportunity to inspect him. Wildlife biologist Angela Kujawa noted the significant scarring and gathered data from the bear while he lay sedated on a tarp.

Then, just 10 minutes after the procedure, he woke up and walked away. No harm done. Just a wobble, a bald patch, and the promise of life without a plastic yoke.

“He was a little groggy, and a little goofy looking now in the absence of a large plastic lid,” said one DNR observer. But likely, he was relieved — even if, like most bears, he didn’t say thank you.

Interestingly, biologists think the lid may have changed his behavior. The lid forced the bear to adjust how it rested, probably making him lie down on his back or side more often than a bear normally would, according to Kujawa.

A Wider Problem

The Michigan bear’s story serves as a reminder of how deeply human debris has seeped into the wild. Similar cases have happened before.

In Colorado, an elk spent two years with a tire around its neck before being freed, at the cost of its antlers. In Wisconsin, Florida, and Tennessee, bears have had their heads trapped in cheese ball containers.

And for every story that ends in rescue, another ends in injury or death.

Plastic bait containers and household trash pose consistent threats to bears. Michigan, home to around 13,000 black bears, urges residents to be “BearWise”, part of a nationwide education campaign to prevent conflicts between people and bears.

That includes recycling or crushing containers like cheese ball tubs, keeping pet food indoors, and never intentionally feeding bears.

Even seemingly benign behavior can backfire if you live in bear country. A discarded drum lid, a backyard bird feeder, an unsecured garbage bin — all of them can reshape an animal’s life in ways that aren’t always obvious.

“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 Norton. “We can all do our part.”

Now free, the young Michigan bear faces a new challenge: adapting to life without the collar that shaped two years of his young life. But that definitely beats the alternative.

It’s easy to celebrate the rescue. And indeed, the photos of the operation are heartening. But the deeper lesson lingers.

Human objects often outlive their use. And when they end up in the woods, they don’t just become trash. They become part of an animal’s world, and our negligence may become their unwanted accessories.