A bear with a hog feeder stuck on its head for more than two weeks was finally rescued by a special team from the State Nature Conservancy (ŠOP).
After two weeks of searching, the team found the animal near the village of Stratená in Slovak Paradise national park, eastern Slovakia.
According to the team, the bear had the hog feeder on its head for 17 days and traveled from the Čierny Váh water reservoir in the Low Tatras to the village.
"It survived for a long time solely thanks to the fact that it learned to drink water despite the feeder stuck on its head."
The animal was put to sleep, the feeder removed from its head. The bear was then treated and released back into the wild.
The plastic hog feeder shaped like a barrel was used for baiting wild boars with corn.
"However, practice has shown that such feeders are not sufficiently secured and protected against other animals, especially brown bears," the conservationists explain, citing that a bear can overcome the locking mechanism and get to the corn inside.
