An unlucky tourist was injured when a hungry camel bit off a huge chunk of his EAR at a zoo in Thailand.

Worachat Boriboon, 32, had taken his children to the zoo at the Wat Bang Kung temple in Samut Songkhram on May 25 evening to play with some of the animals.

While the youngsters were feeding a buffalo, Worachat said he suddenly heard a 'crunching noise' on the right side of his head.

He held up his hand to his right ear and found blood dripping from a wound. Next to him was the culprit - a camel chewing on the piece of ear it had torn off.

The shocked dad rushed to the restroom to clean the wound before reporting the incident to zoo staff. The flesh and cartilage of Worachat's outer ear was gruesomely exposed from the bite.

Worachat said: 'I visit this zoo frequently with my kids because it's close to our home. I had heard before that the camel had a tendency to bite, but never thought I would be injured myself.s

'Other tourists should be careful of the camel because it can reach over the fence with its long neck.'

Local council chief Nathaphat Aim-on conducted an inspection of the zoo the following day.

They found various wildlife, including chitals, boars, peacocks, crocodiles and palm civets.

Temple caretaker Somsak Saekow said the zoo had licenses to keep the animals. He said: 'The camel's name is Dao. It's 14 years old and has been raised here since it was less than a year old.

He added that Dao had likely been conditioned by tourists feeding it with morning glory or water spinach while taking selfies.

He said: 'In this particular incident, the visitor was feeding morning glory to a nearby buffalo, which caused confusion for the camel.

'Mistakenly thinking that the visitor was feeding it, the camel approached closer and bit the visitor's ear instead.'

Zoo management said they will install large and prominent warning signs and build a taller fence with a designated feeding hole to prevent Dao from injuring other tourists.