A hungry wild elephant stopped oncoming trucks to snack on freshly-harvested sugarcanes.

Footage shows the jumbo waiting by the roadside ditch and walking to the parked vehicle to steal some of the sweet stalks in Chachoengsao province, Thailand, on February 21.

The creature backed away while happily munching on its loot while holding up the traffic.

Motorist Wannaphat Ruengdist said: ‘The elephant might have been hungry. It was so smart. It knew right where it could find some food.'

Thailand has an estimated 2,000 Asian elephants living in the wild where they wander freely among protected forests. Male Asian elephants, unlike African elephants, roam alone once they are over 10 years old while females remain with the herd.

There is sometimes conflict when they come into contact with humans on roads and in villages so wildlife rangers are tasked with monitoring their movements.

An estimated 3,000 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.