Sichuan Province, southwest China - Recent (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
1. Various of trapped brown bear
2. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) Hou Ying, instructor, brigade, 77th Group Army, Chinese People's Liberation Army (partially overlaid with shots 3-4):
"When we found the bear, we saw thick branches around it were all ripped off. We guess that the bear must have been trapped here for quite a long time. If not found in time, the bear would be in great danger."
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3. Broken branches
4. Trapped brown bear
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5. Car running
6. Various of military personnel and police officers on site
7. Various of trapped brown bear
8. Various of broken branches
9. Various of military personnel and police officers on site discussing, holding guns
10. Various of people preparing, shooting tranquilizer dart
11. Various of brown bear tranquilized
12. Various of rescuers rescuing bear
13. Food prepared for bear
14. Various of brown bear lying on ground
15. Rescuers leaving
16. Military personnel and police officers talking

Rescuers executed a clever and successful plan to cut free a hungry and irritable brown bear caught in barbed wire on the Chuanxi Plateau in southwest China's Sichuan Province.

Soldiers from a Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) brigade stationed nearby found the wild carnivore with its front leg entangled by a scrap of barbed wire beside the main road near a forest.

"When we found the bear, we saw thick branches around it were all ripped off. We guess that the bear must have been trapped here for quite a long time. If not found in time, the bear would be in great danger," said Hou Ying, instructor of the brigade.

Lacking animal rescue knowledge, the soldiers reported the situation to the local public security bureau. The forest police and staff of the local forestry and grassland administration then rushed to the scene.

After having been trapped for a while, the hungry and irritable bear had by now become aggressive and more dangerous. Taking that into account, the rescuers hammered out a rescue plan to free the bear.

Two technicians shot tranquilizer darts to anesthetize the bear, and it gradually lost consciousness after about 20 minutes. After confirming there was no danger, rescuers blindfolded the bear and covered its body with an iron net before cutting the wire with a clamp. After the successful rescue, they left some food for the bear and withdrew from the scene.

The soldiers came to the scene the next day and found that the bear had already made its way back to the forest.

Brown bears are under the second-class state protection in China. As one of the largest land mammals, it mainly inhabits coniferous forests or mixed coniferous and broad-leaved forests. In 2008, it was included in the red list of endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).