Security cameras captured the 25-year-old male elephant, named Plai Biang Lek, rummaging through food for about 10 minutes in a grocery store. The elephant struggled to move due to the low ceiling, at one point getting stuck in a passageway, before grabbing rice cakes and eggs.
The shop owner, Khamploy Gakaew, then chased the uninvited guest out of the house. He said: “This is the first time an elephant has visited the shop. I hope it doesn’t come back. It ate some crispy sweet rice cakes and eggs before going out. I was surprised to see it eating sweets, as elephants usually go for salty food.”
“We see elephants sometimes, and they will bother street vendors for food. But this is unusual,” Khamploy added. The Telegraph reported that the elephant caused about 1,000 baht worth of damage.
A 4-ton elephant broke into a grocery store in Thailand looking for food. Photo: ViralPress
At one point it got stuck in a passage. Photo: ViralPress
Wildlife officers later returned the elephant to the forest and said they were monitoring the area to prevent it from returning.
Elephants are known for their varied diets, with the World Wildlife Fund finding they need up to 150kg of food a day. Conservationists in Thailand say the wild elephants – some 3,500 of them – have developed a taste for human food and prefer to rummage through homes and vehicles for snacks rather than eating leaves in the forest.
