Live “Elephant in the Zoom” experience supports conservation efforts at Anantara Golden Triangle Elephant Camp & Resort
Racking your brain for the ideal gift for a friend or loved one this holiday season? Anantara Golden Triangle Elephant Camp & Resort is bringing the perfect three-ton gift into homes around the globe this holiday season, but no freight shipping cost is required; only a donation. The world-renowned luxury resort and Asia’s premier elephant camp is partnering with the Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation (GTAEF) to launch an inimitable holiday gift service that stars elephants in Zoom video calls live from their natural habitat in Northern Thailand’s ancient jungle, to help support essential conservation efforts and bring tons of holiday cheer.
With only a limited number of premier trunk call slots available during the holidays, donations start from US$2,500 to bring elephants in on a Zoom video call for twenty minutes on Christmas Eve and Day, and New Year’s Eve and Day. During the Zoom video call that is hosted by Santa Claus, participants can ask him questions about the gentle giants and virtually participate in unique and once-in-a-lifetime elephant experiences, including the resort’s ‘Walking With Giants’ signature experience that provides an optimum way of getting to know the elephants and develop a deeper emotional connection with them. Championing the natural joy of daily free-roaming time, accompanied by their mahouts (carers) and either an elephant veterinarian or biologist, the activity offers insights from scientific experts about how these intelligent creatures think and behave as well as their social interaction in their native habitat. The fun of either a river bath or mud playtime demonstrates just how cheeky these graceful animals can be.
Donations will ensure that GTAEF can continue to care for Asian elephants.
The resort is world famous for its elephant camp that, along with the GTAEF, were set up in 2003 primarily to help street begging elephants and others that could not help themselves. Twenty-three elephants now live in the jungle environment on the border between Thailand, Laos and Myanmar along with their entire mahout families.
Other gift options for family and friends include:
- US$200 donation to bring an elephant in on a Zoom call for fifteen minutes outside of key holidays
- US$18,000 to support for a year one of the three elephants rescued due to COVID-19, monthly updates and pictures will be provided
- US$600 to feed one of the resort’s three-ton beauties for one month
- US$20 to feed one elephant for a day
- US$110 to support the work of anti-poaching rangers for a week
All donors and gift recipients will receive a personalised e-certificate as a memento of their once-in-lifetime charitable experience.
John Roberts, Anantara Hotels, Resorts & Spas’ Group Director of Sustainability & Conservation, said that the almost total disappearance of tourism throughout Thailand due to COVID-19 continues to have a negative effect on the Kingdom’s 3,800 odd captive elephants. “Their carers still need to find an approximate US$ 20 per day just to feed their elephant, let alone their own family, and meet all their other needs – elephants consume between six and ten percent of their bodyweight daily, and it costs approximately US$18,000 to look after a single elephant for a year. Since the start of the national lockdown in Thailand in March, we have taken in three elephants and their carers. The COVID-19 elephant refugees, whose camps were unable to care for them and would ultimately have left them unfriended and unfed, are now matched with friendship groups and, of course, have their own diet plan”, said Roberts.
Donors can also support one of the resort’s elephant adoptees – Boon Rod, Kam Mool and Thong Inn – for one year by making a tax-deductible (USA & Canada) US$18,000 donation and receive monthly updates on the life and wellbeing of their well-nourished Asian elephant.
Unfolding across 160 acres of Northern Thailand’s mystical ancient jungle, Anantara Golden Triangle Elephant Camp & Resort is perched on a hill overlooking the Mekong and Ruak rivers. The secluded location is exclusively positioned to take in majestic three country views over the confluence of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar, and grazing elephants in the most stunning of natural settings below.
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