Bear with bucket stuck on head rescued after being chased up a tree

A bear that had been stuck in Colorado, USA with a chicken feeder bucket on its head for over a week was rescued after two men chased the animal up a tree.

Drew McConaughy said he was working on his under-construction home with his friend Dave Sherman when they spotted the bear, familiar to them from local news, running through the woods.

“Well, Drew said he wanted to tackle it, and I said, ‘I don’t know if I want a part of that,’ so we kind of chased it up the tree,” Sherman told KMGH-TV.

McConaughy said the wanted to contact officials but were worries they wouldn’t arrive in time. He added that chasing the bear up a tree turned out to be a successful plan.

“As she started going up the tree, we realised that was probably the best case scenario, and we just encouraged that. So, once she was up there, we just did everything we could to keep her up there until the professionals arrived,” McConaughy said.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) tranquilised the bear and borrowed McConaughy’s ladders to bring the animal back down to the ground. They removed the bucket and hazed the bear to reinforce its fear of humans while releasing it.

“A bear naturally should be afraid of humans. The case in point of how this bear got into that situation in the first place is that it broke into someone’s chicken coup and got that feeder stuck on its head,” CPW spokesman Jason Clay said.

We’re just glad it is safe and sound.