A stranded wild elephant was rescued after falling into a pond in Thailand.

The male five-year-old jumbo named Seedor Sab was wandering through the orchard when it slipped on the muddy slope of the reservoir in Trat province on January 19.

Workers collecting water for the trees later found the trapped pachyderm soaking in the pool. They called rescue volunteers fearing the animal would drown after exhausting itself.

Footage shows the elephant half-submerged in the pond. It used its trunk to shower itself with the murky water.

Officers then arrived at the scene with an excavator. They carved up a path in the steep slope, allowing the stranded animal to walk back into the forest.

Thawatchai Promsai, a local national park officer, said that a wild elephant herd had been roaming the area the night before.

He said: 'The locals have been unable to sleep because they are scared of the elephants. Some of the elephants are aggressive because they are in musth.

'As for Seedor Sab, it might have been playing near the pond before accidentally slipping into the water.'

Thailand has up to 3,500 elephants in the wild. The population has been increasing in recent years, but it is still a fraction of the estimated 300,000 wild elephants that lived in the country 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.