Angelina is a red panda. GK Air team transported its small passenger to the Emerald Ile. The zoo Berlin Tierpark was the client and had already coordinated everything for a smooth transport of the little bear. "We like to work with Tierpark Berlin", says Kay Wissenbach, managing director of G.K. Air. "Once again everything worked out perfectly. Although such flights are no daily route for many of them we really do enjoy seeing to that the little passengers arrive safely at their new home," continues Wissenbach. "The special transport boxes we use for these transports have been proved by IATA and thus comply with the standards of the umbrella organisation of airlines."

The long-legged Maras look more like fat domestic rabbits. They come from South America and are well adapted to steppe areas. Three females and three males started on a long trip from the Hanover zoo to Novosibirsk on the Ob. The particular challenge of this animal transport was in the elaborate transport arrangements.

Being a bear of thirty years already counts as an impressive age for a brown bear. The old lady named Betsy embarked upon her last great journey to her new home. This included a plane trip from sunny Houston in the US to Romania and concluded by special transport vehicle in a vast open-air enclosure. For the 165-pound bear, it will be a considerable transition, since in recent years, she lived in a private enclosure, which looked more like a collection of garages, together with tigers and other exotics. The American authorities charged the animal welfare organization in Houston, the "American Society for the Prevention of cruelty to animals" (ASPCA), to locate a new species-appropriate home for the seized animals. First of all Betsy Bear was subjected to a complete health check. The full program, right up to a complete review of her overall stats.

The order books of the big distributers in the business clearly show that the demand for exotic reptiles and amphibians as household pets still seems to have a stable development.  A strong and steady progression can be expected, the trend being as it is, moving to ever more curiously eccentric species as part of the households that need to be relocated with their owners alike. So the pet transportation service at G.K. Airfreight regularly get to see allot of rather unusual import consignments, for which many of them require appropriate (CITES) documentation as stipulated in the laws protecting particular species.

Our guest list last week is surely not suitable for the more frail and fragile at heart:

When animals are being transported from abroad, not paying attention to such exigencies can under certain circumstances lead to death, especially when it comes to amphibians, as these react very sensitively to any changes in temperature and humidity.

A Move with quite a difference

A private client would like to relocate with his family and his CITES snake to the Unites States of America. We are talking about a Tiger Python here. The whole crew is going along with all household goods and of course the beloved pet snake is coming too.

Reptile shipping may not always be that easy particularly when the beloved exotic pet snake is a small Tiger Python. No panic – that’s what we are here for.

As far as the Washington Protection of Species is concerned, this reptile, amongst many other exotic animals, falls under the category of protected species. Special documents are required in the case of such a reptile shipment. When importing or exporting a reptile in both entry and exit from Germany to USA.

Royal Berber lion from Morocco - Mint prevents air shipment

The zoo animal transport of a Berber lion arrived just in time for the opening weekend of the Hanover zoo in March. Here the new inhabitants can be admired in their open-air enclosures. Two Berber lions from the zoo in Rabat have thankfully survived the long journey from Morocco and the ensuing three week quarantine and have safely arrived and are in the best of health. Berber lions are something of a speciality in this zoo which opened in 1865. They are the offspring of royal lions who were given to the zoo in Rabat as a gift by King Hassan II. Only a few Berber lions are left today and these live in various zoos across the globe. They cannot be found in the wild anymore.

Thanks to G.K Airfreight Service´s well organised team with the zoo animal transport from Morocco to Germany, the zoo at Hanover has two more attractions to boast.

In this special shipment the animals were not transported by airfreight but rather driven in a special vehicle over land from Morocco over Spain and France before reaching Germany. The vehicle disposed of its own inbuilt suspension and shock absorption system so that the lions could be comfortably transported as though in a luxury travel coach. Flying was out of the question. The lions would have had to share the cargo hold with crate loads of mint. Domestic cats as well as big predator cats are almost magically attracted to mint.

And once again the Hanover Zoo offered us their trust in Zoo transportation of Caribous from Canada. On the 18th of February 2010 the moment finally arrived for the Caribous to begin its zoo transportation to Hanover after days of planning and negotiating with the Hanover Zoo, the Zoo Sauvage of St. Felicien and border controls.

Although pet exportation might be our daily bread and butter, a zoo transport is something of a speciality.

Rund um den Airport: Wenn Bello auf Reisen geht

Nur Fliegen ist schöner... Ein Bericht vom Frankfurter Flughafen.

Having frequently made use of GK Airfreight`s reptile shipping service in the past, a breeder in Miami USA was already informed as to the many regulations for transport boxes when consigning a reptile transport to the states, and would provide for an own transport box. GK Airfreight´s reptile transport service just had to take care of the ticketing and further organization needed when exporting or importing exotic reptiles. Herein it is important to know which species one is dealing with. Do we possibly have CITES obligatory animals amongst them? A highly venomous snakes perhaps?

Once we had received all the relevant data from the breeder, we could book and have the flight confirmed by the airline.

One of our well known zoo customers gave us the order to fly little Murphy, a protected small-clawed otter, to his new home, a Tenerife zoo. Murphy, by now TV star, his female otter friend Kahli and his foster mom were accompanied by a camera team of the German TV channel VOX. We’d booked the flight and issued all transport documents long before the scheduled departure date and Murphy’s sky kennel - an exclusive customized cage - fulfilled all requirements imposed by IATA. Animals, and even more protected little Murphy, ALWAYS fly first class in cargo!