Prague's zoo has teamed up with a mill to turn elephant dung into paper, according to the Associated Press on Wednesday.

Maybe they'll call the product poopyrus?

The effort isn't necessarily new, and there are multiple websites that sell the product. Portland's zoo, however, has no plans to duplicate the latest effort from its counterpart in Europe.

The zoo in Prague has joined forces with the country's famed hand paper mill in Velke Losiny to process the manure to be used in traditional paper-making techniques.

Petr Foucek, a director from Velke Losiny, told the Associated Press the 420-year-old mill has made paper from all sorts of materials but elephant dung "is something new for us." The brains behind the project is zoo director Miroslav Bobek, whose surname literally means "dung" in Czech.

Visitors will be able to make their own paper at a new zoo facility starting Friday. The announcement comes almost five years after the zoo began selling elephant dung in 1-kilogram (2.2-pound) containers.

In Portland, the zoo used to sell Packy's dung collected in a can, and the gift shop also used to sell elephant dung paper, but no more, said Stephanie Cameron, marketing and communications manager.

As far as teaming up with a local paper mill, she said, "we haven't really researched that at all and it's certainly not in our future plans."

By searching "elephant dung paper" in the Internet, a person can find several websites that sell elephant paper. Many claim to sell the paper to promote conservation efforts.

If you're curious how it's made, travel writer Sheila Simkin has the story covered. She posted a YouTube video shot in Thailand showing a local woman making some paper. The process involves boiling the dung in water, letting it dry and using bleach.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

-- Tony Hernandez

thernandez@oregonian.com

503-294-5928

@tonyhreports