This is the adorable moment when a snoozing elephant lies on the hot tarmac of a Thailand road as its family members try to rouse it.
The elephants were filmed on Monday morning in Nakhon Ratchasima, north-east Thailand.
The young elephant is seen lying on the road, with its four family members standing around it, and the only indication of life is a periodic flapping of its right ear.
Another elephant, which looks like a calf, lays its trunk and then its leg against the back of its drowsy sibling – yet the animal still does not get up.
Onlooker Khun Kamron said the entire family had been on the road previously, and they liked it because the heat from the sun made it toasty.
It was another two minutes before the elephant in the video did get off the road, he said.
‘The entire family had been sleeping on the street. They enjoy it since the surface is toasty.’ Mr. Kamron said this.
They fall asleep at night but wake up in the same position in the morning.
‘But when I saw this group, one of the larger elephants would not wake up,’ says Mrs. Adjie. ‘It’s like the others are telling him, “Come on, wake up now; we’re going to be late for work.”‘
‘I’m delighted to see this,’ he explains with a gleam in his eye. ‘It’s uncommon to observe elephants in the wild in such an intimate setting.’
