This is the impressive moment a helpful elephant was spotted carrying baskets of fruit home from a market.

Footage shows the jumbo lifting the blue container full of freshly harvested watermelons with its trunk at Lae Paniad Elephant Kraal in Ayutthaya, Thailand on March 25.

The animal can be seen ambling along the road as its mahouts guide it out of the area, while guests look on in awe at the animal's behaviour.

Lookmo, who filmed the encounter, said: 'Me and my friends were so stunned to see the elephant carrying the watermelons. It was so cool.'

An elephant's trunk contains about 40,000 muscles, allowing it to perform both delicate and powerful tasks. It can lift up to 600 lbs (300 kg) and push or pull objects weighing over 6,600 lbs (3,000 kg), making it strong enough to uproot trees.

Lae Paniad Elephant Kraal was built in 1997 to help reduce the number of nomadic elephants in the city and provide a resting area for elephants and their mahouts, and it now serves as a home for 100 elephants.

Visitors can experience various activities, including watching elephant shows with music and narration on weekends and holidays, enjoying daily elephant rides, taking pictures, feeding the elephants, and participating in the 'Lot Thong Chang' ritual for good luck by passing under an elephant's belly.

While sanctuaries like this help care for domesticated elephants, Thailand's wild elephant population remains a concern, with only around 3,500 individuals left—far fewer than the estimated 300,000 that roamed the country in the early 20th century.

The main threats to wild elephants in Thailand are habitat loss and fragmentation, poaching, and conflict with humans, prompting continuous conservation efforts alongside elephant sanctuaries.