“Kids can get into everything.”

That’s what the Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s Northeast Region reported on its Twitter page recently. The kid in question? A black bear cub. According to a thread of tweets, wildlife officers headed out after learning of the cub in distress. It was caught in wire fencing in Evergreen.

Complicating matters was that the youngster’s mother was nearby but couldn’t free it. In order to receive some human help, the cub’s protective mom had to be eased out of the way. The responding wildlife officers solved that issue by tranquilizing her before coming to the rescue.

The page wrote, “The rescue has to happen fast. We use a catchpole on the cub to make sure it doesn't further hurt itself while the officers cut all the wiring away. The cub isn't making happy sounds, but soon it will be free and much better.”

Once the cub was free and mom woke up, the next step was to discourage this from happening again. The officers used a K9 colleague to haze the bears away from the area and limit their chances of getting stuck in the same place.

The last tweet says, “A complicated rescue with a happy ending! Thanks to our officers who put wildlife health and safety first.”

Entanglement is a common problem facing wildlife. If you’d like to do your part to keep bears, birds, antlered animals, and other critters from getting stuck in something on your property, there are a few helpful steps to take.

If you have outdoor string lights, keep them up high and don’t arrange them like a clothesline. Attach them firmly to a structure. Take down tennis, badminton, and other sports-related nets when not in use. Be careful with garden netting, clotheslines, and other strings, as well. Barbed wire, fake spiderwebs, and bailing twine can also be hazardous for animals.

If you find an entangled animal, be sure to call in experts – like officers from your state’s wildlife department – rather than trying to free them yourself. Much like this cub and mother, they’ll be more apt to head safely on their way.