NJ bear with chicken feeder stuck around its head is trapped, helped and released

The bear that roamed Sussex County with a chicken feeder stuck around its head for the last seven or eight months has been found and freed from the plastic cone.

The bear was trapped in Frankford overnight Sunday into Monday and a wildlife crew cut off the feeder and released the bear Monday morning.

The bear seemed to have become stuck in the cone-type plastic feeder shortly after leaving its mother's side last year, a natural process that occurs in late April to mid-May.

The female yearling, which weighed 89 pounds, was set free and wandered off, said John McGinnis, who lives on Stempert Road and has seen the bear in the area since mid-fall. McGinnis' trail cameras caught images of the bear with the feeder stuck around her neck. He also photographed the bear several times, including when she was captured and released from the cone.

Larry Hajna, a spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Protection, which includes the Division of Fish and Wildlife, confirmed the bear's release and capture late Monday.

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"Biologists from New Jersey Fish & Wildlife this morning [Monday] trapped an 89-pound female black bear in the general area of Bear Swamp Wildlife Management Area and removed a plastic chicken feeder from its head," he wrote in an e-mail. "The bear, a yearling, was temporarily tranquilized during the procedure. It appeared unharmed and healthy and was released into a wooded area."

The plight of the bear had been a Facebook conversation since last fall. McGinnis said he first saw the animal, with her mother, in pictures taken by trail cameras he had set up on his property as well as the adjacent Bear Swamp Wildlife Management Area.

He provided many of the pictures of the bear, easily identified because of the plastic cone that covered most of her head and down to the shoulders. He said Division of Fish and Wildlife biologists had set up a culvert trap — designed to capture black bears alive — early in December but were unsuccessful.

McGinnis said one of the culvert traps was set up on his property, and in video captured by cameras set up by the biologists, the mother could be seen going into the trap, and on a couple of occasions, the yearling would partially enter the trap as well.

"I guess the plastic would bump up on the side of the trap, and the cub would back out," McGinnis explained. He also said he had seen the bear in the wild last December during deer hunting season.

New Jersey has not had a bear hunting season since a modified season in 2020, although there had been bear hunts for several years before.

McGinnis said his trail cameras last picked up the mother and yearling on April 21 and photographed the youngster alone on May 5.

The homeowner said he saw that the trap had closed on Monday morning and walked up to it. "I could see a white thing in there so knew the bear had been caught," he said. He believes the bear went into the trap about 9:30 p.m. Sunday.

When the wildlife biologists arrived Monday, they tranquilized the yearling and pulled her out of the trap.

"They were very professional," said McGinnis, who watched the process. He said the bear's fur was "matted around the ears and neck, but not worn off."

The biologists cut away some of the matted fur and put metal identification tags in both ears. They also tattooed the tag numbers on both sides of the inside lower lip.

He said the biologists then allowed the young bear to wake up and monitored her until she wandered off "with no apparent ill effects."

This article originally appeared on New Jersey Herald: Sussex County bear with head stuck in chicken feeder helped, released