A wild elephant was unhappy with researchers tracking him and KICKED their motorcycle parked on the roadside.

The jumbo emerged from the woodland as wildlife staff were following him to observe the behaviour in Sa Kaeo province, Thailand on February 2.

Footage shows the male jumbo knocking over the motorcycle then kicking it five times like a football before it ran back into the forest.

No one was hurt in the incident but the park rangers warned the villages surrounding the wildlife sanctuary about the aggressive elephants.

Kriroek Reunkam, head assistant of Khao Ang Rue Nai Wildlife Sanctuary said: ‘We have warned three villages to be careful of the wild elephants as they showed bad temper and attacked a bike.’

The wildlife researcher was with park rangers following two elephants which were reported to be intimidating villages near the Khao Ang Rue Nai Wildlife Sanctuary, an area of wild forest home to elephants.

The group were driving cars and motorcycles tailing the elephants while they were heading back to the forest.

However, one of the jumbos appeared to have been annoyed by the noise of the vehicles so it proceeded to charge at them.

The other vehicles were able to flee but the researcher’s scooter was left behind with him riding in a colleague’s car.

The researcher said he was about to collect his motorcycle but the jumbo was to close, so he left it there and watched from a distance.

He said: ‘It was walking in front of my bike, then used its hind legs to kick the front of my motorcycle.’

An estimated 2,000 elephants are living in the wild in Thailand and a similar number in captivity, where they live in sanctuaries, zoos or work privately for hire at weddings and festivals.

In the wild, there is a conflict when they come in contact with humans who also use the area for farming and gathering food.

Elephants are a protected animal in Thailand and killing them carries a maximum prison term of up to three years and a fine of 1,000 baht (25GBP).