Watch as experts rush to aid of wild brown bear in Spain with its head stuck in a plastic drum

The plastic container prevented the animal from seeing and feeding, thus endangering its life

El Norte

Castilla y León

Monday, 18 September 2023, 12:17

Specialist personnel from the Junta de Castilla y León have safely captured and released a wild brown bear whose head was trapped in a plastic drum in the town of Anllares del Sil, in the municipality of Páramo del Sil.

According to sources from the regional Ministry of the Environment, a local resident spotted the animal with its head trapped in a discarded container which prevented it from seeing and feeding, thus endangering the life of the brown bear.

After an initial call was made to Fundación Oso Pardo, the foundation referred the matter to specialised staff at the Junta de Castilla y León.

Environmental agents, the Junta's bear patrol team and the clinical veterinarians from the network of wildlife centres assigned to the plan for the capture and radio-tagging of brown bears in the region immediately arrived on the scene.

The veterinary team fired a shot with an anaesthetic dart, and within 12 minutes the male brown bear, weighing 98.5 kg, with no signs of dehydration was fast asleep. The team immediately proceeded to remove the plastic drum from its head.

A tracking collar was also placed on the animal to geolocate it, and the rescue operation ended with the taking of biometric measurements and biological samples before the brown bear was released back into the wild.

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