In Florida, a bear cub with a plastic jar trapped on its head for a minimum of 10 days has finally been liberated.
The bear, affectionately named “Jarhead,” got ensnared in the container while rummaging through refuse in the vicinity of Weirsdale.
According to the biologists who intervened to save the cub, he was mere days from death due to his inability to eat or drink.
To successfully capture the cub, they first sedated his mother, then managed to restrain him by pinning back his ears and removing the jar.
At the end of July, residents started to notify the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) about sightings of the bear cub struggling with the jar.
Regularly, the cub, along with his mother and two siblings, foraged through the trash around Weirsdale.
‘Tough little bear’
Though biologists set up traps in various locations, the cautious bears evaded capture.
After eight days filled with sightings, two days passed without any reports of the bear family, raising concerns among scientists that the cub might have perished from starvation.
However, on Friday, the bears made a reappearance.
A FWC team, which included a specialist in bear response, arrived on the scene.
They tranquilized the mother bear before subduing Jarhead long enough to remove the plastic jar from his head.
“The tough little bear lived up to his US Marine nickname and didn’t surrender without a struggle,” stated the FWC on their website.
Subsequently, the scientists secured the sleeping mother in a trap, and soon after, the three cubs joined her.
After spending a day under observation in the trap, the bear family was released and has not been spotted since, a development that the FWC has labeled as “good news indeed.”
“While the outcome appears to be a happy one, it starkly highlights one of the most severe dangers when wildlife interacts with garbage,” the FWC remarked.
