This drone footage captured a cheeky elephant in the middle of a farmer's field gorging on his sugarcane.

The hungry jumbo had left patches of the plantation empty while munching on some of villager Thamrongsak Chapkun's crops in Prachin Buri province, Thailand, on December 5.

The overhead video shows the animal flapping its ears while standing among the tall grass and snacking on the sweet stalks. The mischievous elephant even appeared to wave its trunk in greeting as the drone camera flew closer for a better view.

It had even managed to carve out a circle in the middle of the sugarcane without hardly disturbing the surrounding plants.

Thamrongsak said: 'This elephant must have thought nobody would know where it was standing. I fly the drone every other day while working to check on the crops.

'Sometimes the whole herd visits the field.'

Thailand has an estimated 2,000 Asian elephants living in the wild where they wander freely among protected forests. However, there is often conflict when they come into contact with humans on roads and in villages so wildlife rangers are tasked with monitoring their movements.

A similar number of elephants in the country are also kept in captivity to work in the tourist industry or at religious festivals and weddings. A small number still work in commercial logging.