LONDON - A problem-solving donkey has become a social media star after figuring out how to escape through a fence using its mouth.

It stands and watches as its donkey pal tries fruitlessly to get through the bars of a makeshift fence at a donkey sanctuary in Italy, before stepping in to remove an unsecured bar with its teeth and let out the herd.

It even stands to one side to let its friends out first before following them out.

The video has been viewed thousands of times online.

The creature's owners at Paradise sanctuary in Ronco Scrivia, northern Italy, caught the donkey doing the same thing last month (Jan 2017) and posted a similar clip to their Facebook page.

The problem-solving donkey is called Oreste and sanctuary staff say he is much brighter than the other donkeys there.

"Pedro and Domenico jump, Oreste thinks about it a bit… and finds another solution," they told the Daily Mail.

One viewer of the video wrote: "Donkeys are intelligent and faithful animals! They become stubborn if they are exposed to violence!

"They have every right to fight back!"

Another commented: "They are much more clever then you think and their memory is excellent."