Adorable baby elephant gets caught eating sugar cane—hides behind telephone pole

A cheeky baby elephant has become a viral sensation for trying to hide behind a narrow pole after locals in Thailand caught him helping himself to a sugary midnight snack.

Baby elephant with conscience tries to hide behind a lamppost in Thailand

There are some 2000 elephants in the wild in Thailand and, as you’ll discover in this article, helping themselves to sugarcane is a bit of a thing. Such was the case last week in Chiang Mai, in the north of the country, where a baby elephant was caught late-night snacking on sugar cane in a local farmer’s field. When he realised that people were approaching, the little elephant did some quick thinking about where he could hide and came up with the hilarious (if hopelessly ineffectual) hiding place. The adorable youngster decided to hide behind a thin lamppost at the edge of the field, in the hopes that he wouldn’t be spotted. Look at him. Awww. 

Wild elephants in South and Southeast Asia walk among humans

In Asia, and particularly across South-east Asia and the Indian subcontinent, the sight of elephants roaming freely close to rural villages is one of the region’s most iconic scenes. Due to the threat of extinction facing these gentle giants, there are ever greater measures being implemented in this part of the world to safeguard them and enable their conservation and protection. This has meant that their presence in populated areas is not unusual and certainly not a cause for alarm or hostility.

Efforts have been made to try and achieve a peaceful coexistence of elephants and humans; and while there’s still a long way to go before the experiment can be considered entirely successful, it’s worthwhile acknowledging that important progress has been made. 

This can be seen in Thailand where elephants, besides obviously being an important and protected species, are also one of the country’s tourist attractions, meaning that the reciprocal relationship benefits both parties. And this peaceful coexistence has meant that many elephants have felt confident enough to steal crops or even wander into traffic in order to help themselves to sugarcane stacked on trucks. See below.

Source: Positive/Upsocl