John Roberts
John Roberts
John Roberts saw his first captive elephant, Sham Shere Bahadur, on the lawn of Tiger Tops Jungle Lodge, Nepal, October 1, 1999. Despite being surrounded by many fascinating things in Chitwan National Park he was quickly fascinated by elephants, not only the creatures themselves but by the complex relationships with their mahouts.
Coming to Thailand in 2003 to manage elephants exposed John to a new set of challenges faced by elephants and their mahouts cut off from their jungle roots. He set up the award-winning Elephant Camp for Anantara Golden Triangle Elephant Camp & Resort, the first commercial operations to replace elephant saddles with bare back riding, and then the Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation (GTAEF) to bring street-begging young elephants back to their natural habitat.
As well as helping wild elephants stay wild, GTAEF now concentrates on helping mahouts and elephants adapt to the realities of modern life in Southeast Asia. Core projects such as Target Training Positive Reinforcement Workshops have reached more than 200 mahouts, vets, and managers responsible for thousands of elephants across eight range states. Through partnerships with other organisations, GTAEF is providing the first full-time veterinary care to Southeast Asia’s most populous captive elephant site, home to the mahout tradition arguably most cut-off from it’s roots, Ban Ta Klang, Thailand. There they also provide children with full-time English training and conservation education.
John is a member of the IUCN SSC Asian Elephant Specialist Group and co-chair of the Asian Captive Elephant Working Group. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic John, his GTAEF team, and the elephants have live-streamed nearly daily via Facebook at GTAEF Helping Elephants and Instagram at @GTAEF_Thailand.
