This is the shocking moment a grumpy elephant charged at a motorcycle rider, waving its tusks inches from his head.

The wild, rampaging beast was spotted running through a garden toward the road when a passing elderly man on a two-wheeler was almost injured during the encounter in Chanthaburi, Thailand, on February 21.

Terrifying footage shows the enraged pachyderm letting out a loud roar as it dashes toward the local, who was visibly startled by what he saw.

Upon seeing the animal, the pensioner quickly accelerated away, while the elephant ran off in the opposite direction without looking back.

No one was reportedly hurt in the encounter.

The filmer said: 'Wild elephants often come at night to eat fruit from villagers' orchards and typically return to the forest around 5 am, but when this incident happened, one of them was still roaming outside.

'I think it was separated from its herd and likely got frightened by barking dogs.'

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.