#Bear cub, head stuck in pail, saved in dramatic treetop rescue

Winnie the Pooh stuck his nose too far into this honey pot.

Two kind-hearted men in Ontario, Canada, are being lauded online after rescuing a baby black bear that clambered up a tree with its head stuck in a pail, as seen in a dramatic Facebook video posted Monday.

“I looked over the edge and saw the big red bucket and realized it was a little bear cub,” local Trevor Buchmann told CTV News while describing the hair-raising rescue. He and a friend, Greg Elder, reportedly discovered the container-bound cub close to Buchmann’s house near Kenogami Lake after it had been wandering loose for at least five days, per his Facebook post. The animal had likely become trapped while foraging for food at a local dump, said Mike McIntosh, the president of wildlife rehab center Bear With Us.

“Whether the cub was looking for food or not, if something was in that jug that smelled sweet or smelled good, it’s going to lick it,” said McIntosh, who has been rescuing the burly beasts for 28 years.

In the nail-biting footage, which boasts more than 25,000 views, one of the rescuers can be seen attempting to grab the cub bare-handed while it clings to a tree. However, the first approach backfires when the bear scrambles — quite impressively — up the trunk at breakneck speed with the bucket still on its head.

Elder eventually decided to scale the tree himself and guide Baloo back down using a stick, whereupon the exhausted animal leaped into the lake below. They then wrapped the bewildered bear in a blanket and relieved it of its plastic prison before placing it in a cage. The clip concludes with the heroes feeding the famished furball some kibble and strawberries.

The noble deed has earned the wildlife warriors heaps of praise on social media.

“I am so happy you were able to save this little guy and give him another chance!” wrote one online animal lover.

“Never a dull moment in Kenog!” said another in reference to Kenogami Lake.

In fact, the cub has since been dubbed “Kenny” after the site of its rescue, according to Buchmann.

And it appears Kenny is faring fine after his jarring ordeal. He is currently resting his paws at Bear With Us and is slated to be released back into the wild next summer, reported CTV.

Kenny’s not the first cub to be rescued from a receptacle recently. In June, some big-hearted Wisconsin boaters freed a baby black bear that they found swimming with its head caught in a plastic tub.