This is the dramatic moment a motorcycle rider pulled over and ran away from a wild elephant.

The road user with his two-wheeler was stuck at the tail of a traffic jam when a jumbo emerged from the forest and strolled on the road in Nakhon Nayok province, Thailand, on March 17.

Footage shows the motorcycle rider abandoning his vehicle and fleeing in the opposite direction, as the animal was only 15ft away from him. The jumbo then used its trunk to check the unmanned motorcycle.

He maintained a safe distance between him and the elephant, stopping to watch if the animal would leave.

Truck driver Bankthosaporn Sachae said: ‘The wild elephant caused a traffic jam in the place and the rider was very scared.'

The elephant later returned to its habitat, easing traffic in the area while the man rode his motorcycle to leave.

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.