Footage of bear trying to release cub from net

Dramatic amateur video has been of an Alaskan fisherman's efforts to help a mother bear free her cub from an oversized net.

The black bear cub became entangled in a dipnet, which had been lying in tall reeds behind Dane Havard's Anchorage house.

Dipnets are large fishing nets with a long pole and netting that can be up to five feet in diameter.

Havard and the mother bear alternately tried to free the cub, but nothing worked until he started up his truck and used it to drag the frightened, screaming cub out of the reeds and into the open.

The video shows the anxious mother trying to use her teeth and claws to free the cub while Havard pinned the netting to the ground with his vehicle.

All the while a second bear cub is shown looking on seemingly bewildered by the scene.

With the net eventually immobilised, the mother bear was finally able to rip through a hole to free the trapped cub.

The mother is then seen carrying away the whimpering cub in her mouth as the three bears beat a hasty retreat from Havard's backyard.