Handle with care was the top priority as FedEx flew a 1.2 tonne rhino across the USA on Tuesdayafter a year’s preparation for the difficult special transport.
Zuri, a three-year-old Eastern black rhinoceros weighing 2,600 pounds (nearly 1.2 tonnes),was flown from Cleveland to Portland on a FedEx freighter.
The female rhino was being sent by the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo to the Oregon Zoo inPortland on breeding loan as part of a species survival scheme. She will be paired with the OregonZoo’s male black rhino, Pete, in hopes of producing offspring.
The ‘heavyweight’ transport followed almost one year’s worth of planning and training,Cleveland Metroparks Zoo explained. Moving a rhino requires using a very strong animal crate, andtherefore keepers use positive reinforcement to condition the animal so it will be calm andconfident in the crate during travel.
The animal, in this case Zuri, spends a set amount of time in the crate every day, the zoosaid. Keepers slowly increase the time the animal stays in the crate until it can calmly stay inthere long enough to cover the travel time. Eventually they do test runs where they even stageunfamiliar noises outside the crate to desensitize the animal to sounds it might hear while on atruck or an airplane.
In Zuri’s case, she was in the crate for less than a day. She flew first-class, for a rhino,aboard a FedEx cargo plane accompanied by animal care staff from the Oregon Zoo to take care ofher.
