New extinction risk to Thai elephants: eating them

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Thailand's revered national symbol, the elephant, may face a new threat of extinction: being poached not just for their tusks, but for their meat.

Two wild elephants were found slaughtered last month in a national park in western Thailand, alerting authorities to the new practice of consuming elephant meat.

"The poachers took away the elephants' sex organs and trunks ... for human consumption," Damrong Phidet, director-general of Thailand's wildlife agency, told the media.

Some meat was to be consumed without cooking, like ‘elephant sashimi’, he said.

Consuming elephant meat is not common in Thailand, but some Asian cultures believe consuming animals' reproductive organs can boost sexual prowess. Damrong said the elephant meat was ordered by restaurants in Phuket, a popular travel destination in the country's south.

It wasn't clear if the diners were foreigners. Poaching elephants is banned, and trafficking or possessing poached animal parts also is illegal.

Elephant tusks are sought in the illegal ivory trade, and baby wild elephants are sometimes poached to be trained for talent shows.

"The situation has come to a crisis point. The longer we allow these cruel acts to happen, the sooner they will become extinct," Damrong said.

The quest for ivory remains the top reason poachers kill elephants in Thailand, other environmentalists say.

Soraida Salwala, the founder of Friends of the Asian Elephant foundation, said a full grown pair of tusks could be sold from USD 31,600 to USD 63,300, while the estimated value of an elephant's penis is more than USD 950.

"There's only a handful of people who like to eat elephant meat, but once there's demand, poachers will find it hard to resist the big money," she cautioned.

Thailand has fewer than 3,000 wild elephants and about 4,000 domesticated elephants, according to the National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department.

The pachyderms were a mainstay of the logging industry in the northern and western parts of the country until logging contracts were revoked in the late 1980s.

Domesticated animals today are used mainly for heavy lifting and entertainment.