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Bear Gets Trapped by Tempting Jar

A 100-pound young Black Bear in Jamison City, Pennsylvania got into unexpected trouble when he found an old plastic jar. The jar contained cooking oil and the bear couldn't resist the temptation so he stuck his head inside to get a few licks. Unfortunately for the bear, his head got stuck in the jar and remained stuck for at least 11 days. Mike Jurbala, a 68-year-old local resident, summarized the situation: "[The bear] put his head in, and had a problem. He'd have died in a couple more days."

Area residents first spotted the bear with the red jar on its head on June 3, 2013. The bear eluded the local game wardens, but Jurbala and three other local residents, using a rope and a flashlight, kept pursuing the bear. "You knew where he was," Jurbala said, "because you could hear him banging into things."

As the bear lumbered through the darkness, bashing into trees and rocks, the rescue team finally cornered him in a resident's backyard, where it ended up falling into a pool a couple of times. Eventually, they wrangled the animal into a position where another rescuer named Jody Boyle yanked the jar off his head.

A local employee for the Game Commission said that this incident shows that people should keep lids on jars that they throw away. But maybe that bear also learned a lesson—like keeping his head out of jars lined with cooking oil.

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