Smarter than the Average Bear....

The young male bear made light work of an experiment aimed at deterring the animals from hunter’s kills. 

Wildlife biologist Heather Reich, 39, and her husband, photographer, Derek, 55, have studied bears in Montana, USA, for more than a decade. 

The couple wired a dead deer up to a fence charger designed to shock bears coming too close to human areas. 

The experiment, which was caught on a remotely activated motion-sensing camera, shows a grizzly biting the deer and being shocked.

But rather than being deterred, the persistent bear then spends 14 hours casing the trap until finally unhooking the battery and winning his prize. 

The incredible footage ends with a triumphant bear dragging off the deer after destroying the carefully set up experiment. 

Heather, from Heber, Utah, said: “This footage shows us how tenacious bears can be. 

“You would think after being shocked a bear would just leave the area not that it would spend 14 hours working out how to disarm the set up.

“He spent a lot of time just staring at the deer trying to figure out how to get it without getting shocked.

“He can hear the clicking of the energiser which was providing the charge on the deer. 

"He doesn’t know what he’s doing but he knows that if he changes something maybe it’ll make the shock go away.”

The curious bear manages to disconnect the car battery from the charger and within seconds has made off with the deer. 

Heather said: “It wasn’t until we looked at the vide that we saw how the bear had outsmarted the trap.” 

The couple have been studying bears in the wild for more than ten year to better understand how to protect them from harm. 

Derek said: “We were responsible for a great deal of 'management', which is dealing with bears who get into trouble by wandering into human developed areas. 

These bears needed to be taught to avoid these areas for their own good, so we employed a technique called 'aversive conditioning’.”

As well as administering shocks the couple also used trained dogs to chase bears out of certain areas and even shot at them with non-lethal rounds. 

And they have documented much of their important work, which has never before been see.  

Derek said: “Being a cameraman I couldn't resist documenting as much as I could while still conducting the work we were there to do.

“This experiment was filmed in 2007 but hasn’t been widely seen before."

"This footage is unique in that no human was present, so the behavior is as genuine as it gets with these animals. 

"Human presence always alters animal behavior, no matter what photographers may think."

Along with bear conservation group Vital Ground the couple hope to save and protect struggling bear populations. 

Heather said: "It’s a heck of a lot of fun getting a glimpse into the secret life of wildlife”.