Dan Koehl

Dan Koehl was born 28 October 1959 in Stockholm, Sweden, the fifth child of parents Gösta Albert Köhl (1916–1996), Swedish engineer and Margot Nordholm (1922–2006).

Growing up in Mountain View, California, United States, and on Östermalm in Stockholm, Koehl became a passionate zoo visitor and aquarist, worked in aquarium and zoo-shops and studied zookeeping at Enskede gårds gymnasium. Besides subsequent studies at Stockholm University and Calle Flygare Teaterskola, Koehl began his career as commissioned shepherd for the Royal Herd of Sheep at Gärdet in Stockholm, and elephant-keeper at Circus Scott under famous elephant trainer Banda Vidane, before carrying out mahout apprenticeship in Sri Lanka and India,[6][7][8] and traditional German elephant management and training in Hanover Zoo and Hagenbecks Tierpark in Hamburg, by elephant chief trainer Karl Kock.

Since the late 1970s, Dan Koehl has served as head elephant keeper, stable master (Equerry) and consultant at zoos, circuses and ranches around the world. European locations have included Skansen, Cirkus Scott, Hellabrunn Zoo (Munich), Borås Wildlife Park, Tiergarten Schönbrunn, Dresden Zoo, Zoolandia. Parco Natura Viva, Kolmården Wildlife Park, Circus Krone, Tiergarten Walding, Karlsruhe Zoo and Prague Zoo. While at Skansen, pending the departure of the stable's elephants "Nika" and "Shiva" to inferior living conditions abroad, he figured in a campaign that sparked nationwide debate over "Stockholm's beloved elephants". Despite described by Cynthia Moss in Elephant Memories as "among the best-cared-for and happiest I had ever seen in captivity", after much controversy, Skansen's elephants were shipped to Cricket Park, England, only to face premature death.[9][10][11]

At Tiergarten Schönbrunn in Vienna 1998, Koehl was requested by Director Dr.Helmut Pechlaner to retrain the elephants and form a new elephant team, when the zoo was forced to change the team of elephant keepers and was faced with an aggressive campaign concerning its keeping of elephants. Likewise he assisted Director Dr.Herbert Lücker in Dresden Zoo 1999, when the zoo was heavily attacked by members of animal rights organisations, where he also trained elephants and coached their staff.[12]

At Kolmården Wildlife Park, Koehl was commissioned "royal head groom" for the management of the elephants "Boa" and "Saonoi" donated to King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden by King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand.[13] Since the 1990s worldwide locations have included Elephant Experience and Sondelani Game Lodge in Zimbabwe, Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage in Sri Lanka, and Airavata Elephant Foundation and the elephant Sanctuary Kulen Elephant Forest, both latter ones in Cambodia.[14][15][16]

Dan Koehl has contributed to various animals and wildlife care and preservation foundations related especially to elephants, including Asian elephant victims of war at Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage.[17][18] and has since early nineties been a contributing Professional member to the Elephant Managers Association, [19] as Deputy of the Executive Secretary for the European Elephant Keepers and Managers Association (EEKMA) 1998–2008, he co-worked out the Elephant management safety guidelines (2002).[20][21] Koehl has served as board of director for Elefanten-Schutz Europa, as Chairperson for the Swedish organisation Defend the elephants [22] and the Swedish National Union of Aquaristic Societies (SARF), [23][24] and as Web developer created websites for enterprises like Tropicarium Kolmården, [25] and ImageWare Austria.[26]

Koehl has been residing in Phnom Penh, Cambodia since 2010.[27]

Parallel to lecturing in zoology, Dan Koehl has been documenting research about elephants, creating the website Elephant Encyclopedia and the Elephant Listserver (elephant-@listserver.wineasy.se), [28]both in 1995 as a collaboration with the Elephant Research Foundation and its founder Jeheskel Shoshani, [29] who assisted in creating a FAQ-section and zoological research at the website Elephant Encyclopedia.

The website Elephant Encyclopedia has been online since 1995.[30] Since 2006, it comprises the world's largest research database on individual elephants (and possibly on individual animals from a single species overall).[30][31] Cited by journalists, organisations and in scientific works,[32][33] it has notably figured in regard to elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus and to evolution of cancer suppression.[34][35][36][37][38]

Dan Koehl is descended from the mayor in Hoenheim, outside Strasbourg in Alsace, France, master baker Jean-Michel Koehl (born 1791),[39] a descendant of Michel Koehl, who died in 1754 in Mertzwiller in Alsace. In addition, Koehl also descends on his paternal side from Nicolaus Laurenti Sidenius Angermannus, vicar in Sidensjö 1594-1630, and on his maternal side from Birger Nordholm, founding director of the Swedish National Tourist Office in New York City, co-founder and the first chairman of the European Travel Commission, honored with the Golden Key to the City of New York in 1987 as well as the road Nordholm Drive in Weston, Connecticut, and Carl Siegmund Friedrichs Lachs, who brewed the first Bavarian beer in Sweden, including for the royal court of Sweden, and owned three breweries in Sweden as well as Fred Lax's Columbus Ale in New York City.[40]

• Koehl family
• Circus Krone
• Tiergarten Schönbrunn
• Airavata Elephant Foundation
• Elephant Research Foundation
• Swedish Wikipedia
• List of Wikipedia people

• Elephant Encyclopedia and database