This is the adorable moment baby elephants slid on their knees down a muddy hill.

The playful jumbos live inside the Elephant Freedom Village in Chiang Mai province, northern Thailand.

Their carer, Non, recorded the animals having a great time in the hills surrounded by trees in the forest.

He said: "This is the cutest roller coaster I have ever seen. My kids looked happy and I am glad that they were enjoying the outdoors."

Elephant Freedom Village, a non-profit organisation that rescues elephants to ''undo the damage done by humans'' and over time ''return them to the forest where they belong.''

The organisation said their elephants spend 90 per cent of their time in the forests and 10 per cent in sheltered paddocks at night, where ''they are given fresh piles of food to graze from; enough to sustain them until the morning hours.''

Thailand has at least 2,000 elephants living in the wild and a similar number in captivity. They live in sanctuaries, elephant parks, zoos, tourist resorts or with private owners who use them for weddings and religious ceremonies.