A wounded wild elephant received treatment as wildlife officials searched for two more injured jumbos in a forest in Thailand.

The bull named Plai Long was seen limping through a rubber plantation in Trat

Wildlife rangers from the nearby Namtok Khlong Kaeo National Park arrived on June 27 after receiving reports of three injured pachyderms spotted in the area.

They used drones to scan through dense forest and tracked Plai Long wading into a pond. Vets fired a treatment dart, spooking the leathery beast, which fled into the forest.

Plai Long's condition remains uncertain, but officers said they were hopeful the medication would stabilise its injury.

Kongkiat Temtamnan, director of the Protected Area Office Region 2, said: 'The team is continuing the operation and we are determined to find and treat the others before their condition worsens.'

The vet team was still searching for the two remaining jumbos named Phang Jakkalaen and Plai Hongthong.

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.