• A wild elephant named Plai Biang Lek raided a grocery store in Thailand for snacks.
• The elephant ate nine bags of rice crackers, a sandwich, and dried bananas.
• This incident highlights increasing human-elephant encounters due to habitat loss.

A hungry elephant casually strolled into a grocery store near Khao Yai National Park in Thailand, where it helped itself to various snacks. Videos of the incident show Plai Biang Lek, a huge male elephant, entering the store and munching on items from the shelves, much to the surprise of the shopkeeper and customers. Despite attempts by park workers to shoo him away, the elephant remained unfazed, ultimately leaving with some snacks without causing significant damage, apart from muddy footprints, according to Indiatimes, HuffPost, and Channel News Asia.

The shop owner, Kamploy Kakaew, expressed amusement during the episode, noting that the elephant consumed nine bags of sweet rice crackers, a sandwich, and dried bananas. She reported that the elephant left without injuring anyone, further illustrating the surprising and benign nature of this encounter, according to HuffPost and Channel News Asia.

This incident marks a noteworthy occurrence for the elephant, known to have sought food from human habitats before. Danai Sookkanthachat, a volunteer park worker familiar with Plai Biang Lek, mentioned that while the elephant has been known to enter houses in search of food, this was his first visit to a grocery store. Danai noted a trend in wild elephants venturing further from their natural habitats as farmers expand agricultural land into forest areas, creating more opportunities for human-animal conflicts, according to Indiatimes, HuffPost, and Channel News Asia.