Oh pooh, bear cub gets head stuck in jar

A bear cub that failed to heed the lessons of Winnie-the-Pooh got its head stuck in a jar and had to be rescued - 12m up in a tree - by environmental workers.

The 13kg male cub, which is recovering, was rummaging through rubbish in a residential section in north-west New Jersey, US, when he discovered a container of animal crackers with some sweet leftovers inside.

It pushed its snout in for a snack, said Mr Larry Ragonese, spokesman for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.

The bear got spooked when someone approached it and it scooted up a tree, becoming wedged in the branches with the jar on its head, Reuters reported.

A biologist climbed up after the cub and, after a brief tussle, tranquilised it with a needle in its paw and carried it down.

Firefighters cut off the jar and workers dunked the dehydrated bear in a barrel of water to help revive it. It had been stuck in the tree for about two hours, said reports.

The cub is recovering at an undisclosed animal rehabilitation centre and will be released back into the wild after about six weeks.

North-west New Jersey has more black bears per square kilometre than anywhere else in the US and Mr Ragonese urged residents there to secure their rubbish against rummaging animals.

Bear-proof rubbish bins should be used and residents should not put unprotected rubbish on the kerb overnight for morning pickup, said Mr Ragonese, and "then you won't have Winnie the Pooh".

This article was first published on JULY 4, 2014.
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