This is the heartwarming moment four wild elephants stuck in a pond were rescued in Thailand.

The pachyderms slipped into the reservoir while searching for food in a forest in Bueng Kan province on April 27.

Villagers found the jumbos, including two calved aged 5 and 10, struggling to climb up the steep slope, and called a wildlife rescue team for help.

Officers dispatched a backhoe to dig up in a corner of the man-made pond.

Footage shows residents cheering as the wild animals trudged up the path to safety.

A wildlife officer said: 'We believe the elephants had come from the mountain at night, and tried to enter the reservoir to find water. However, they could not climb back up.'

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.