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Bangkok. A new taste for eating elephant meat — everything from trunks to sex organs — has emerged in Thailand and could pose a new threat to the survival of the species.

Wildlife officials said they were alerted to the practice after finding two elephants slaughtered last month in a national park in western Thailand.

The poachers took away the elephants’ sex organs and trunks “for human consumption,” Damrong Phidet, director general of Thailand’s wildlife agency, said in a telephone interview.

Some of the meat was to be consumed without cooking, like “elephant sashimi,” he said.

Poachers typically just remove tusks, mostly of the Asian male elephants, fetching thousands of dollars on the black market. A market for elephant meat, however, could lead to killing of the wider elephant population, Damrong said.

“If you keep hunting elephants for this, then they’ll become extinct,” he said.

Consuming elephant meat is not common in Thailand, but some Asian cultures believe consumption can boost sexual prowess.

Damrong said the elephant meat was ordered by restaurants in Phuket, a popular travel destination in the country’s south. The nationality of the diners is unknown.

The accusation drew a quick rebuttal from Phuket Governor Tri Akradecha, who told Thai media he had never heard of such restaurants but ordered officials to look into the matter.

Poaching, trafficking or possessing elephants is banned, and is also 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” 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 1 million to 2 million baht ($31,600 to $63,300).

She estimated that the value of elephant’s penis was more than 30,000 baht.

“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 said.

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 mammals 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.

Associated Press