A clumsy mother cow was reunited with her worried calf after falling into a 20ft-deep well behind a crematorium in Thailand.

The big bovine named Cherry was grazing near the Wat Bo Rai temple in Trat province when she slid into the shaft on January 25.

Rescuers first tried to pull the hefty animal out by wrapping a rope around her neck, but the operation proved futile because she weighed a whopping 300 kilos.

They had to bring in a backhoe to dig up the earth and create a wider opening for Cherry to move through. The rescue took around one hour to complete, during which Cherry's two-month-old calf named Tarn looked on anxiously.

After their reunion, the pair were taken back to the Buddhist temple to rest.

Phra Chumpon, a monk at the temple, said: 'Cherry often goes to eat behind the crematorium. She might have raised her head to pluck some leaves but fell into the hole.'