This is the heartwarming moment a lost baby elephant stuck under a muddy pit was rescued in Thailand.

The young jumbo wandered away from its family into a farm near the forest in Buriram province when it slipped down the hole on March 23.

Exhausted and terrified, the creature made trumpeting sounds while crying before locals found it and called wildlife officers.

Footage shows the juvenile elephant which was only about the size of a big dog, wading through the thick sludge.

The Dong Yai Wildlife Sanctuary said in a statement: ‘Our officers were informed by villagers that a baby elephant had fallen into an unfinished well.

‘The baby was a female calf, about two-months-old, and was examined by the veterinarians who found it was in good health.'

The rescuers dug a slope in one corner of the hole so the creature could walk up freely. It was crying and shouting while struggling to climb out of the narrow space.

Officer took the baby elephant into a temporary shelter in the sanctuary. It would be fed with milk every two hours until it was strong enough to be returned to the wild and reunite with its herd.

Thailand has an estimated 2,000 Asian elephants living in the wild - down from 100,000 a century ago - and around 3,000 in captivity owned privately. In the wild, they are seen wandering freely among protected forests, occasionally appearing on the roads that run through them.