Jetpets were contacted by Dreamworld’s Al Mucci about moving a Tiger from Poland to Australia back in March. Scotty Williams from our Brisbane office had the job to manage this move (nice one Scotty!)
The first stop was to track down an Specialised Animal agent in Warsaw that could assist with the road transport, government paperwork and airfreight of such a valuable animal all the way to Brisbane. The Tigress, whom was a resident at Krakow Zoo will now go on record as the largest female
Tiger in Australia at 200kgs, which makes her only 10kgs lighter than Sultan, Australia’s heaviest Tiger (Also a resident at Dreamworld.)
The process to make all this happen was close to 3 months, with the Polish Government, CITIES, DAFF & customs approvals all needing to be met prior to planned uplift.
Scotty had entrusted the great team at Jetaway Travelto arrange for Two Tiger Handlers from Dreamworld to fly to Poland to be there for the collection and acquisition, whilst flying back with the new tigress.
The crate conditioned Tiger was loaded before dawn at Krakow Zoo then travelled 6 hours via road to Emirates freight Terminal at Warsaw airport.
She was carefully loaded on the Emirates passenger flight from Warsaw to Dubai for the next leg of her journey. Once in Dubai she had a layover.
The Tiger Handlers got access to her during this transit about Midnight local time. She had travelled well on the first leg. She managed to chew some of the wooden floor of the 414kg crate, (which was ok as it provided her with some enrichment during transit!)
She was carefully moved from the cargo area about 9am the next morning for her next Emirates flight from Dubai to Brisbane.
The plane arrived just after 6am Saturday morning and Margie Armstrong was the trusted ‘Jetpetter’ to
arrange for the smooth transit through the Toll Dnata import area and drive her down to Dreamworld (about 1 hour south of Brisbane Airport).
The team at Dnata and Daff staff where great to ensure that the loading and paperwork was in order , this occurred quicker than it took for the two tiger handlers to get off the plane. Once we arrived at Dreamworld,a forklift was used to move the crate into a position that they could safely open the door and release her into the Quarantine Approved enclosure.
After about 1.5 hours of the new tiger considering her surrounds from her crate, she finally walked into her quarantine approved premise area!
The tigress has settled in well in her new home at Dreamworld. Dreamworld Life Sciences General Manager, Al Mucci filled us in:
“Firstly we are privileged that this amazing female tiger has arrived safely to the Dreamworld tiger family with the help of Jetpets and many other stakeholders.
We look forward once quarantine has been completed to share future good news that she has bred successfully with one of our resident male tiger and we keep investing into the Dreamworld Wildlife Foundation which is the largest zoological donor to Tiger conservation on the planet.”
This tiger brings a new gene pool to the Dreamworld family and Jetpets are proud to have helped such a worthwhile conservation organisation such as the Dreamworld Wildlife Foundation continue its great work.
