REMARKABLE footage filmed by an Ambleside-based student captures the moment a female Canadian grizzly bear tried to eat his camera.

John Kitchin is a visual ecologist and PhD student with the University of Cumbria's Centre for Wildlife Conservation.

The research group is involved with bear projects around the world; however much of the work is conducted with populations in British Columbia.

John had travelled to a bridge that crosses a salmon-bearing river at Glendale Cove in Knight Inlet and was recording an interview with a bear biologist on a platform below the bridge. 

“A young female grizzly was being very curious, chewing on the bridge, peering over at us, while her mother and sibling were on the other side of the bridge watching some other bears in the river below," said John.

“But as soon as she smelled the camera she made a beeline for it. She actually dropped it but came straight back and then took it to the other side of the bridge to have a little chew on it. 

“It shows a gentler side of the often-misunderstood animal, because it didn’t rip apart the camera right away; instead taking it out of its external case before puncturing it with its teeth."

Miraculously, the GoPro camera survived the event and the video has been uploaded to YouTube.