Transporting a shipment of birds by air is certainly not a great challenge for the well-seasoned members of the G.K. Air Animal Transportation Services’ team – were it not for the destination: Iraq. Otherwise, the bird relocation would be like any other.

Relocating two young, 18-month old jaguarundis (Puma yaguarundi) from Dortmund, Germany to Panama City, Florida, in the United States, was a recent first for G.K. Airfreight Service - the Animal Transportation Service. For, despite its 40-year history relocating zoo animals and providing pet transportation, G.K Air never before had dealings with this species. Most people have never heard of a jaguarundi, much less seen one. This was truly a “first.”

Indeed, the jaguarundi is the least “catlike” of feline animals. They resemble martens or weasels more than cats, and their natural habitat is Central and South America where they are considered an endangered species. The Dortmund Zoo was providing the Bear Creek Feline City in Florida the opportunity to present jaguarundis for the very first time, relocating the animals from urban Central Europe to sub-topical Florida.

Transporting any animal -- but especially birds -- has to be well-planned right down to the smallest detail. For instance, birds may not be transported without an extremely thorough medical examination because of the great world-wide anxiety concerning the spread of Bird ‘Flu. Veterinarians must therefore have a well-trained eye when it comes to giving examinations providing a clean bill of health to birds which are to be shipped.

It is a long way in more ways than one for a group of desert foxes known as Fenneks to relocate from their temporary German home in Darmstadt, (a smaller city near Frankfurt in the state of Hessia,) all the way to permanent quarters at The Bronx Zoo in New York City.

Aside from the almost 4,000 mile distance between cities, both the zoo animal and human populations in City’s northernmost borough are almost 10 times as large. However, preparing intercontinental animal transportation is “business as usual” for G. K. Air whose experience transporting zoo animals, family pets, and animal collections globally for 40 years is unparalleled.

Just because an animal has four legs with feet solidly on the ground and boasts a low center of gravity does not mean that it can’t fall or tip over and get hurt. That’s why there is a succinct reason for preparing special animal transportation cages when air freighting Yellow Cheeked Turtles, their low-slung body construction notwithstanding.

Flying birds as different as pelicans and roadrunners around the world to zoos on the other side of the globe is no easy task. Winter temperatures always pose a challenge.
Recently, G.K. Air’s expertise was required as four pelicans and six roadrunners, (the iconic non-flying bird from New Mexico,) needed to travel from the warm, sunny San Diego Zoo in southernmost California to the wintry Berlin Tierpark zoo in the German capital.

The first challenge Gradlyn had to face was the correct choice of transport cages for these very sensitive birds. Each species required a special cage as they had to be kept apart from each other rather than housed in the same cages. Often, that which is acceptable in a zoo is absolutely prohibited for birds in transport. In addition to this, special importation approvals were required as birds, regardless of species, must always even now be extremely carefully examined because of the dangers occasioned by bird flu.