Baby elephant’s adorable struggle to escape a mud bath in South Africa

This is the adorable moment a baby elephant slips and slides as he tries to hoist himself out of a mud bath before he ends up tumbling back in. 

Cute footage shows the animal getting up on his hind legs as he tries to follow larger elephants up the slope. 

But after trying to lift his right foot up to the edge of the pool of water he loses his balance and splashes back into the mud. 

The young elephant’s adorable efforts to follow the herd were captured in Kruger National Park in South Africa last Sunday.  

At the start of the clip the elephant can be seen following a much larger member of the herd in the South African mud bath. 

Splashing his feet in the water he makes his way towards the slippery shore as the bigger animal easily climbs up to dry land. 

He plants himself on his hind legs and raises his front feet to get a grip on the top of the bank as he prepares to climb up. 

But when he pulls his left hind leg upwards, the elephant cannot quite reach high enough and, after scrambling around for a second, tumbles sideways back into the water. 

Two of the older elephants can be seen turning around to help their little brother after he ended up back in the pool.  

Making a second attempt, the youngster has two of his siblings support him with their trunks as he slides his way up the bank. 

Finally, still supported by the larger elephants’ trunks, he yanks himself up to the shore and races away to the dry grass nearby.  

The animal tries to hoist itself up to the dry land but cannot quite pull itself up completely 

After slipping and sliding on the shore the elephant comes crashing back into the muddy water

The baby elephant finally makes it to the top with the help of two friends and their trunks