'You'll never see me!' Cheeky baby elephant tries to hide behind a narrow pole after locals caught it eating sugarcane in a field.

There are more than 2,000 elephants living in the wild in Thailand. But one of them recently made headlines after committing the cheekiest 'crime' ever.

In Chiang Mai, northern Thailand, a group of locals stumbled upon a playful baby elephant feasting on some sugarcanes in a farmer's field.

However, the calf probably didn't expect people to find it. So when they did, the cheeky baby hid behind a narrow pole, believing no one could see it.

When the locals shone a light on the elephant and its conspicuous hiding spot, it remained standing perfectly still, hoping they wouldn't spot it.

Needless to say, things didn't work out quite as the baby elephant had hoped.

However, its unsuccessful attempt at hiding behind a pole did capture the hearts of local farmers and netizens as it made them crack up with laughter.

The hilarious picture has garnered hundreds of comments on Facebook. It also went viral on other social media platforms like Twitter and Reddit.

One commenter joked:

Where's the elephant? All I see is the pole.

Jokes apart, this is the cutest thing I've seen in a long time.

According to National Geographic, wild elephants usually spend about 16 to 18 hours grazing about 150 to 200 kilograms of food every day.

So, these animals are always searching for roots, small trees, bamboo, grasses, and any other edible plants.

However, over the last six decades, Thailand has lost more than 60 percent of its forests. As a result, the amount of space for elephants to graze has been reduced.

This sometimes leads to human-elephant conflicts as the animals turn to farmer's fields and the streets to satisfy their hunger.

For instance, another picture surfaced recently showing a pet kitty confronting a four-tonne elephant that wandered into its garden looking for food.

Despite the elephant's size and capability of killing a human with one step, the ferocious 'guard kitty' didn't get intimidated.

Instead, the kitty squared up to the wild elephant, which turned on its heels.

According to residents, the 35-year-old elephant is called Pai Salick. Locals have spotted it trampling on people's gardens many times in search of food.

A local park ranger said:

The elephant lives in the forest, but he often walks around the homes at night to look for food. People know who he is.

The house owner said his cat is aggressive and doesn't like other animals entering his territory.