How do animals travel?
Zoos exchange animals all over the world. Moving animals from one zoo to another, whether by land, water or air, is always an undertaking that requires a lot of planning. To ensure the safety of animals and people, each animal must have a suitable transport box.
Zoo animals travel by car, train, ship and plane.
While traveling, the animal must be safe, and the animal carrier and passenger must also be safe. Therefore, it is best to transport the animal in a box – a transport box. Its strong walls and the darkness inside have a mostly calming effect on the animal.
The box must not be too big, so that the animal can’t break it from inside when it is anxious about driving. However, the animal must be able to stretch, stand up and lie down in the box.
The stronger or better equipped (horns, teeth, hooves, claws) the animal is, the more durable the box must be. For rodents with large and strong teeth, the transport box should be made entirely of metal.
In the elephant tower, you can see a small old transport box with which in 1985 a small elephant was brought to the Tallinn Zoo
How to get an animal in a transport box?
It’s easy with burrow animals – a narrow and dark box gives them a good sense of security, and most of the time they slip into the box willingly and happily. If the animal does not want to go into the box, then it has to be trained with the box, enticed-dissuade it, trick it or, if there is no other option, put it to sleep and lift it into the box. For longer journeys, it must be possible to safely give water to the crated animal. Although an animal under travel stress usually does not eat, it must also be possible to feed the animal during long journeys.
Before sending the animal on the road, a health check, necessary vaccinations and chipping must be done.
