This is the viral moment a baby elephant sprints past its grandmother to get to her special fruit cake before diving in headfirst and rolling around in the juicy mess.

The incident, viewed nearly 4 million views on Instagram and Twitter, was filmed at the Samui Elephant Haven, which first opened in 2018 to welcome rescued elephants exploited by tourism, located on the island of Koh Samui in the Gulf of Thailand.

The footage shows an elderly elephant and her cute grandson approaching a cake that was made for them by staff with the help of donations from animal lovers who can pay up to THB 5,000 (USD 150; GBP 110) for the animals to be given a juicy cake made of pumpkins, watermelons, bananas and other tasty morsels, according to the elephant sanctuary.

The footage is then uploaded on social media so donors can watch the elephants enjoying the meal they helped to fund.

But in this video, just as the elderly elephant eyes up the juicy treat, the little calf sprints past and tramples on it, tossing some of it in the air with its trunk and rolling around in the mess.

The elderly elephant, reportedly named Khun, was gifted the 80-kilogramme (176-lb) ‘cake’ by animal lovers.

Despite the younger elephant’s antics, some of the cake was preserved and the grandma elephant was able to a large helping, as seen in the video.