A friendly baby elephant bowed her head and curtsied to ask for milk.

Footage shows the four-year-old juvenile jumbo named Cherry following a woman inside a shed before greeting her in Phuket province, Thailand on January 29.

After saying hello, the gentle animal Cherry was given a bottle of milk which she happily sucked onto.

Caretaker Ratchanat Wiangnon said the young elephant had always been sweet to them.

She said: ‘Cherry was just like a toddler. When she wanted something, she would approach us and politely ask for it.'

Thailand has an estimated 3,000 elephants kept in captivity in camps, sometimes made to work in the tourist industry or at religious festivals and weddings. A small number still work in commercial logging.