A potentially devastating custom could pose a new threat to the survival of the species in Thailand – the taste for eating elephant meat. People are now eating everything from the trunks and sex organs, to straight up elephant sashimi.

The Associated Press has discovered – on the back of two slaughtered elephants being found last month in a national park in western Thailand – that the poachers weren’t just after the tusks which fetch thousands of dollars on the black market.

Damrong Phidet, director-general of Thailand’s wildlife agency, said:

The poachers took away the elephants’ sex organs and trunks… for human consumption. If you keep hunting elephants for this, then they’ll become extinct. The situation has come to a crisis point. The longer we allow these cruel acts to happen, the sooner they will become extinct.

He explained that restaurants in Phuket – the popular travel destination in the country’s south – had ordered the elephant meat, but it wasn’t clear if the diners were foreigners or local Thai people.

Some Asian cultures believe consuming animals’ reproductive organs can boost sexual prowess, and this could be fueling the trade.

Soraida Salwala, the founder of Friends of the Asian Elephant foundation:

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.

While poaching elephants, and trafficking or possessing poached animal parts is banned in Thailand, elephant tusks will always be sought in the illegal ivory trade.

Baby wild elephants also find themselves at risk because they get captured in order to be trained for talent shows and work purposes: there are more domesticated elephants (4 000) than there are wild elephants (3 000) in Thailand.

This practice stems from the historical work elephants have carried out in Thailand such as heavy logging and building work.

There are also rumblings that Chinese residents in Thailand may be playing a role in the Thailand elephant-poaching crisis.

[Source: WashingtonPost]