John Lehnhardt
John Lehnhardt is the Animal & Environmental Policy and Standards Technical Director of Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Lehnhardt brings 28 years of zoo-based elephant experience to the foundation. He was an Animal Keeper with elephants at Lincoln Park Zoo for four years, an Elephant Trainer at the Calgary Zoo for eight years, and Associate Curator at the National Zoo for 9 years before joining Disney’s Animal Kingdom as Curator of Elephants in 1997. Disney’s Animal Kingdom currently houses a group (3 male and 9 female) of African elephants in a breeding situation. Lehnhardt promoted and participated in the early assisted reproduction efforts of the National Zoo, paving the way for the successful artificial inseminations at the Indianapolis and Dickerson Park zoos in 1998. He has traveled to Southeast Asian on multiple occasions to study Asian elephants in logging camps. He has served on the AZA Elephant TAG/ SSP Management Group since 1991; the AZA Elephant Task Force; has taught at five of the annual AZA course “Principles of Elephant Management” (PEM), a school for elephant handlers; and is a founding member and former President of the Elephant Managers Association.