‘Angry’ Elephant chases a motorcyclist riding down forest road

Footage shows the moment an elephant chases a motorcycle rider trying to pass through a forest road.The wild jumbo stalled traffic as it checked cars and delivery trucks for sugar cane in Sa Kaeo province, Thailand, on 17 May.But the elephant - already annoyed after failing to find food in his vehicle inspection -turned angry and tried to charge at a rider that got too close behind it."I will definitely not try doing that again. The elephant was angry that there was no sugar cane from the trucks. I almost died," Warakorn Noijajran said. He reversed his two-wheeler and sped away while the jumbo was running behind him.But despite the encounter with the hot-tempered animal, Warakorn escaped and reached home unscathed.He said: ‘One wrong move and an elephant could have trampled me and my bike to death.'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.