This is the moment a hungry wild elephant walked into a resort to search for food.
The tusker emerged from the Khao Yai National Park in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand, and entered the MeetingView Khaoyai resort around a kilometer away on July 25 evening.
CCTV footage shows the jumbo crossing the fence and taking a stroll in a garden. It feasted on some bananas it plucked from a tree before wildlife officials arrived to drive it back into the forest.
No guests were staying at the resort during the incident.
Officials said recent heavy rains may have prompted the elephant to venture outside the woods to find food.
The area is known to have many popular resorts, with wild elephants sometimes appearing from the nearby sanctuary. However, the resort manager said the animals have never caused harm to tourists.
As of 2023, there are an estimated 3,084-3,500 wild elephants in Thailand. The population has been increasing in recent years, but it is still a fraction of the estimated 300,000 wild elephants that lived in Thailand 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.
