A hungry passing elephant helped itself to a midnight snack - reaching into a food stand to grab some left over noodles.

Footage shows the peckish jumbo using its truck to feast on a meal it had found at the closed market stall in Nakhon Nayok province last November 18.

Convenience store workers who filmed the incident said they had heard noises coming from the noodle shop after it had closed for the day.

Thinking it was a thief, they went over to inspect and found the wild animal stuffing bundles of noodles into its mouth.

The elephant later walked away after having its fill and made its way back to the nearby forest.

As of 2023, there are an estimated 3,084-3,500 wild elephants in Thailand. The population has been increasing in recent years, but it is still a fraction of the estimated 300,000 wild elephants that lived in Thailand at the beginning of the 20th century. The main threats to wild elephants in Thailand are habitat loss and fragmentation, poaching, and conflict with humans.