Zoo animals are sometimes lent, borrowed, or exchanged between zoos for purposes such as breeding or exhibition. One of the jobs of us "coordinators" is to handle the procedures and preparations for these animal transfers.

Depending on the type of animal, legal permits or notifications may be required to move them. Furthermore, a great deal of preparation is necessary, involving many people, including signing contracts, verifying individual animal information and feed, arranging quarantine procedures, preparing suitable transport crates, and coordinating with relevant departments and transport companies. It's not uncommon for the process to take several months before the actual move takes place.

After going through all that work, the day finally arrived for the animals to be moved. Let's take a look at a day in the life of the coordinator who was in charge of moving several different kinds of animals.

Arrival of the giant anteater transport box		Place the animals in the transport crates.

First, we begin by transporting the giant anteater. We ask the transport company to arrive with ample time to spare, taking traffic conditions into consideration. Working together, we carry the heavy transport crates to the animal enclosure, place the animals inside, and load them into the truck. After seeing the truck off and notifying the destination zoo that it has departed safely, we immediately begin preparing for the next job.

The second move of the day was to transport birds from Tama Zoo and Inokashira Park Zoo. First, we drove from Ueno to Tama to pick up the birds, then went to Inokashira, picked up more birds there, and returned to Ueno. After checking the condition of the animals, we handed them over to the animal hospital, and that concluded the animal transport for the day.


Confirmation of arriving animals. Ueno Zoo Animal Hospital
Once the animals that have newly arrived at each zoo have completed quarantine at an animal hospital, they can finally meet you all.

[Shinichi Kioka, Coordinator, Ueno Ueno Zoo]

(December 11, 2015)