Nature

Bear Cub Rescued by New York Conservation Officials After Getting Neck Stuck in Tree

For the second time this summer New York State Environmental Conservation Department officials have come to the rescue of a baby bear cub, this time in the Catskills-area village of Windham, New York.

On Monday, a baby black bear cub was found with its head stuck between the branches of a maple tree in a Windham townhouse development, the development's property manager Bruce McNab told the Watershed Post newspaper.

"It must have slipped up at the top of a maple tree, and when it fell it went into a split in the tree and it was just stuck there," McNab told the Watershed Post newspaper, adding that the cub was about 65 feet up in the air when it was discovered.

Environmental Conservation Officer Anthony Glorioso was tasked with bringing the cub down from the tree, which he did by climbing all the way up himself to get a better look at the cub's situation. After he saw the cub's neck was stuck in the "V" of one of the tree's branches, Glorioso tried to free him by hand but found he couldn't.

"The bear was 50 to 60 pounds," McNab told the Watershed Post. "They're so strong."

(MORE: Long-Submerged Ghost Town Rises From the Bottom of Drought-Parched Lake Mead)

Finally, officials were able to cut the branch with a chainsaw and free the bear cub, bringing him down in a bucket. "As soon as the bucket came down, the cub ran back into the wooded area," the department wrote on its Facebook page.

It was the second time in a little over a month that Glorioso found himself coming to the rescue of a baby bear cub. In late June, he was called to nearby Palenville to help free a black bear cub that got its head stuck in a plastic jar.

That time, he not only had to free the cub but avoid its mother, which was roaring at him from a tree in the woods nearby. The danger of the situation was clear, but so was the cub's predicament with its head stuck in the jar, he said in an interview. "If someone can't pull it off, there's no way that bear is going to get it off itself."

Thankfully, Glorioso was able to free the cub from the jar and immediately set him loose, watching as the cub ran straight to the tree where his mother was watching the whole scene unfold.

"It was almost like she knew we were trying to help him," he said in a June interview. "Usually they’ll chomp their teeth at you or make noise, but she was really relaxed on the side of the tree looking at us."

MORE FROM WEATHER.COM: 27 Orphaned Bear Cubs Rescued