The Official Houston Zoo Blog

At long last, the adventure for our zoo team concludes !

In my last blog we had just boarded our cargo plane to leave Africa.  Flying cargo was certainly an interesting experience.  The plane was a 747.  Anyone who flew on these planes in the 70′s and 80′s might remember that there was an upstairs area.   Back then, the upper flight deck was a lounge area for first class passengers.  That area has long since been replaced with more seats for more revenue, but on our plane there were 6 business class seats, a small galley, the bathroom and two small closet with “beds” in them.  I could barely stretch out on one and I’m only 5’1″ so I’m not sure how the Joe’s fit…they’re both over 6 ft!  But the beds were a nice option when we had been crammed in a car and were still facing  48 hours of transit time.

Knowing there were three rhinos below us that had never flown before was also an adrenaline-pumping feeling.  And believe me, we knew it when they got restless!   Turbulance is one thing, but a rhino bouncing around in a crate is something quite different.  The whole plane would shift and the thumping was a bit disconcerting at first.  During the first leg from Johannesburg to Harare we checked on the rhinos often because we weren’t sure how they would react, and we needed to reassure ourselves that the crates were still safely locked down.  But after a bit the rhinos settled down and so did we.

In between the two shorter legs of our trip, we were on the ground for several hours in both Harare and Nairobi abd we weren’t allowed off the plane.  We used the time to feed the rhinos and watch the cargo being shifted around in the hold.  That in itself was a cool operation to watch.  The floor of the cargo hold was a series of tracks, wheels and mechanized plates that moved the cargo around with seeming ease.  Huge pallets, including the ones the rhinos were on could be moved back & forth like a kid’s puzzle game to make sure everything fit.  Check out this video, curtesy of Dr Joe Flanagan, of the rhino crates being moved into position.  Eventually they had pallets of flowers packed all around them. 

By the third leg of the flight, the long 10 hours from Nairobi to Amsterdam, the rhinos seemed to have gotten the hang of takeoffs and landings.  They seemed less thrilled about the landing part.  With ears as huge as theirs are, I imagine it might have been a bit uncomfortable, especially since we couldn’t explain to them about pressure and without thumbs they can’t hold their nose while blowing!   But the flight was smooth and the Joe’s & I even managed to get some sleep.  Because we were the only passengers, we could turn out the lights on the flight deck and there were no seat mates to climb over to get out of your row. Nice!

Joe K. catching some well deserved zzz's on the cargo plane.

Eventually we landed in Amsterdam where more fun awaited us.  Believe it or not, we were given more conflicting information about where we were supposed to go, where the rhinos were going, where our luggage needed to be and how everyone/thing was getting where.

As I mentioned in my last blog, we originally thought we would have  twelve hours in Amsterdam, but that had been whittled down to about four.  90 minutes of that were spent waiting for the person from the animal hotel to arrive at the plane to transfer the rhinos.  She told us we needed to go through the regular passport control so we waited again while they called someone to come and collect us.  After that we had to find our own way to the animal hotel, which was about a 20 minute brisk walk.  We quickly fed the rhinos, collected our luggage from the pallets  (apparently we were breaking some international regulations by leaving them on the pallets.  It was OK in South Africa, but not The Netherlands…sigh!) and dashed back to the terminal to check in. 

We had been promised that we would get right through the ticketing and security lines.  By now we should have known not to take anything at face value.  Joe Kalla and I could not print our boarding passes at the numerous ticket kiosks they have in Amsterdam.  Dr Joe managed to get some assistance and was successful in printing a boarding pass, but Joe K. and I were directed to a line of other passengers with problems.  We decided that Dr Joe should head to the gate because someone needed to be with the rhinos.  We also needed to figure out where Dan was.  The plan had been to meet him at the hotel the night before and we had no way of letting him know we weren’t going to make it to Amsterdam until morning.

Joe K. discovered that his name was misspelled on his ticket and the people at the “problem line” could not help him.  He was sent away to yet another desk with another line.

I was told there was a security hold on my passport for some reason.  In our post 9/11 world, this was somewhat disturbing to hear.  At this point I was getting a bit impatient and after insisting that I HAD to be on the plane leaving in 20 minutes with the rhinos they printed me a boarding pass but warned me that I would be detained at security.  I saw Joe K. still waiting in a line, wished him luck and headed off to try my own luck with security.  I caught up with Dr Joe and apparently security didn’t care that I was some sort of risk because no one asked me anything and I went right through.  Presently we saw Dan in line behind us.  He had spent a not very comfortable night wandering the airport because the hotel room wasn’t in his name and they wouldn’t let him check in.  The three of us collectively wondered if Joe K. would make it before boarding.  Fortunately (?!?) the flight was packed and getting all the passengers screened took a while. When everyone seemed to have gotten through to the waiting area I asked a staff member if she could check on Joe K’s status.  The computer showed that he was checked in with a boarding pass so we crossed our fingers and hoped he would make it. Finally we saw him coming down the hall and at last we were all set for our final leg of the journey!

This plane was again a 747 but it’s what is referred to as a “combi”.  It holds both passengers and cargo.  The front 2/3 of the plane is passengers, and the back section is cargo.  The two sections are separated by a wall with a door through to cargo.  To the average passenger this would look like the back of the plane.  Little did they know that there were three large and unusual passengers traveling with them!  We had our own KLM staff member that flew with us whose sole job it was to let us through the door to the cargo area to check on the rhinos.

Towards the end of the flight, the male rhino began bouncing in his crate.  By this point we were used to this, but to the stewardess, who’s job it is to know what sounds are normal on the plane and what aren’t, it was quite a surprise.  I saw her eyes get really big and realized that she didn’t know it was the rhinos and not the plane!  She breathed a huge sigh of relief when I explained it was just the rhinos moving around a bit.  I thought it was amusing that we were reassuring the flight crew instead of the other way around.

We were pretty excited, very tired and also extremely relieved when the captain announced that we must all fasten our seat belts, ensure that our seat backs and tray tables were in the proper upright and locked positions and prepare for landing in Houston.  What a welcome sight to see some familiar terrain out the plane window!

It was a beautiful landing. Jeremy Stewart, our resident videographer got a nice shot of our plane landing at IAH. We were very happy to see Hannah Bailey, Curator of Birds, waiting to shuttle us to the cargo area after we cleared customs.  When we arrived at cargo, a whole team of zoo staff was already busy getting our three rhinos loaded onto flatbed trucks for the drive to the zoo.  If you haven’t had the opportunity to see it yet, here’s the video showing the final leg of the rhino’s journey to the Houston Zoo. 

With the rhinos safely unloaded in their brand new barn, our adventure had at long last come to an end.  For all of our guests, though, the adventure is just begining!  We hope you’ll join us on December 10th for the official opening of The African Forest and you’re own adventures with giraffes, chimpanzees, and of course our three new rhinos, Sibindi, Lynne and Annie Kamariah!

If you’d like to read the entire series from the begining, click this link: http://www.houstonzooblogs.org/zoo/category/rhinos-2/