An elephant held up traffic as it took its time stretching right in the middle of a road.

Footage shows the wild jumbo named Plai Nguang Thong by park rangers, appearing to do a morning exercise while dozens of motorists were stopped from a distance in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand.

The pachyderm scratched its back and swayed its trunk appearing to do a leisurely morning routine on May 18.

However, the travellers could do nothing but wait as the gentle giant completely blocked their passageway through the forest.

Driver Parat Khuntaweekied said: 'Plai Nguang Thong suddenly came out of the forest behind Khao Khieo Shrine.

'It had just played in the mud before stretching lazily and doing poses.'

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.