An injured baby elephant that was lost in the forest after being abandoned by her mother was rescued.

The small jumbo had last been seen with the parent in Lam Khlong Ngu National Park, Kanchanaburi, Thailand, on September 20, when she was born.

However, locals discovered the hapless female newborn alone in the woods, just a day old at the time, twitching in pain, with a bleeding wound on her hind leg.

Footage shows the calf, no bigger than a large dog, lying on the ground as park rangers carefully massaged its body to ease its distress.

At one point, the baby elephant rested on the lap of a rescuer while being given water, while another officer used leaves to drive away insects swarming its injured leg.

Afterwards, wildlife officers carefully lifted the fragile calf and carried her to a truck to be transported to veterinarians for proper treatment and recovery.

Dr Phatthraphon Manion said: ‘The baby was either separated from her mother or she might have intentionally left her there for humans to find.

'The infant will be cared for in captivity and only returned to the wild if the mother can take her back into the herd. If that is not possible, she will remain in government care at a sanctuary.'

The Thai Elephant Alliance Association donated three litres of elephant milk and colostrum to feed the baby. She is now recovering and will be transferred to the Bungchawak Wildlife Management and Development Centre.

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.