A bear seen wandering around northern Wisconsin with a jar on its head has been freed.
"My immediate neighbor was like, 'Hey, just heads up, here is what's heading towards your house,'" said Jayme Morey.
Morey is the medical coordinator for Chequamegon Humane Association in Ashland, Wisconsin. She's used to getting the word out about missing dogs and cats. This time, it involved a bear in a potentially dire predicament.
Morey had been tracking the bear all week. It was spotted regularly. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources said the bear was finally found near Cable in Morey's neighbor's yard on Sunday.
"Earlier this week, I was just like, 'There's no way.' I'm like, 'This story is not going to end.' Well, it's not going to be this hero story, and lo and behold, the bear is alive, and it does not have a bucket on its head," said Morey.
Department staff responded and tranquilized the 2-year-old female bear before cutting off the jar. The DNR said the bear was then relocated and released in the woods.
"We've seen this come up from time to time, often with a bear, occasionally a deer," said Randy Johnson, a large carnivore specialist with the Wisconsin DNR.
The bear was still able to drink by dunking its head into water.
"You could tell the animal was skinny. It obviously had been wearing it for some time," said Morey.
The bear weighed roughly 70 pounds when she was rescued. DNR officials say a bear her age typically weighs somewhere between 100 and 150 pounds during the summer.
The bear was in good shape with no noticeable injuries when she was found, the DNR said. As for how long she could have survived trapped in the jar, Johnson said that's hard to say, but he said it's thanks to all the tips from the public that this bear has a good shot at surviving.
"The good news is this is the time of year when food is the most abundant in the woods, and she's got two months to kind of get back into healthy shape going into winter, so she's certainly got a good chance," said Johnson.
When she was released, she started feeding on a patch of nearby berries, officials said.
The Chequamegon Humane Association said the bear had the jar on her head for more than a week. During that time, she moved nearly 50 miles, according to the DNR.
The bear received two plastic ear tags for identification. Officials thanked the public for reporting the bear as she moved across northern Wisconsin.