'Elphie' selfie snapped by elephant with Christian LeBlanc's GoPro

A Vancouver man is making international headlines with an extraordinary 'elphie' selfie photo taken by an elephant in Thailand that grabbed his GoPro.

Christian LeBlanc is a 22-year-old UBC student who spent the past semester on an exchange program in Bangkok. He says about two months ago he was travelling through southern Thailand when he came across an elephant sanctuary on the side of the road.

"I see a sign that for 50 cents you can feed theelephant. So my girlfriend and I go and buy a basket of bananas andwe start feeding the elephant," LeBlanc told CBC News.

"The elephant loves thebananas, so it kind of gets a bit nosy itgrabsat your hands, it tries to take all the bananas. And once we ran out, next thing I knew it was it was grabbing theGoPro."

LeBlanc says "with one swift movement" the elephant threw its trunk into the air and inadvertently snapped the best photo he's ever gotten.

"Ididn'teven have time to think. It all happened so fast."

LeBlanc posted the elephant selfieor "elphie"as it's come to be known on hisInstagram account (christian_leblanc)on Wednesday and within hours it was being shared by media outlets around the world.

"I'm still in shock that it turned out that way. I'm in shock that this story has gone viral. It's been a pretty crazy two days," says LeBlanc.

LeBlancgraduated a couple of weeks agoand is now exploring the Philippines. Hesays he hopes what people take away from his story is just how easy it is to travel, even on a small budget.

"I guess I'd really like to emphasize that if anyone's interested in doing the things I've done, I can't guarantee an elephant selfie, but it's very easy to make it to this side of the world," he said.

LeBlanc has since managed to snap aselfiewith a whale shark near Alona Beach. Though, this time, he was in control of the camera.