Handle with Care

Transporting animals is, for me, one of the most exciting yet nerve-wracking parts of my job.  On the one hand, it always excites me.  There's the chance to move animals into a better situation, to bring in a new species to work with or exhibit, or to form a new breeding population.  These are all things that excite me very much, and I enjoy the detail and coordination that go into them.

At the same time, there is always so much potential for things to go wrong.  I've been lucky that, knock on wood, I've never had a real disaster transporting animals, in that they all have gotten where they needed to be safe, sound, and alive.  There have been hiccups for sure - flights missed or delayed, unexpected weather, an animal that missed a connecting flight and spent a night in a Tennessee airport, even an animal involved in a car crash during a ground transport (thankfully no one - human or animal - was injured).  Even when things go perfectly (or perfect enough), there is the stress on the animal.  One of the saddest moments for me, in my entire career, was listening to a young bear that I'd helped raise crying in fear as her crate was loaded into a plane.  I knew she was okay, I knew things would be better in a few hours when she arrived at her new home, but at that moment, she was scared and my heart was breaking for her.

Sometimes, it's hard for me to remember how much better things are for animals in transport these days.  Back in the days of Carl Hagenbeck and Frank Buck, even Gerald Durrell in his post-war animal collecting days, creatures were taken from the wild in what was inevitable a stressful, dangerous process.  Then, they had to be hauled towards a city or port, a journey which in the 1800's could be very long and risky.  Then there was cooling your heels until a ship was ready to haul you across the world.  So much distance to cover, so many changes, so much potential for delay or disaster.  So little knowledge about veterinary care or nutrition, so little focus on welfare and comfort, and so little regulation.

It's not surprising that so many animals that were collected from the wild did not live to see the zoo that was their destination, or did not survive long upon arrival.

Transporting animals reminds me that our creatures are, simultaneously, so very fragile and so very tough at the same time.  I love doing, but I secretly dread each one, not feeling relieved until either I unpack the animal in its new home and see it comfortable and doing well, or until I hear from the receiving institution that everything turned out okay.  Still, stressful though they can be, moving animals is necessary for the survival of our institutions.  I think of our animal collections as pools of water.  Blocked off and isolated, they stagnate and die.  Movement, in and out, keeps them fresh, vibrant, and alive.