São Paulo – Qatar Airways Cargo, the Doha, Qatar-based airline’s freight branch, created an initiative this year to transport wildlife as part of the company’s sustainability program called WeQare: Rewild the Planet.
In late April, the company flew seven lions from Kiev, Urkaine through Doha, Qatar and from there to the natural reserves of Kouga and Swinburne in South Africa, which received three lions, one lioness and two cubs in Johannesburg. Pictured above, the lions coming into the nature reserve.
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After the three-day trip, the lions could walk on grass for the first time in their lives. The transport from Kiev to Doha lasted four hours and was done in a passenger aircraft Boeing 777. The trip from Doha to Johannesburg was done in an Airbus A350-900 aircraft.
All are in good health. It took six months of work involving a dozen departments and over 50 employees to ensure a successful operation. The initiative helped Ukraine’s NGO Warriors of Wildlife (WOW).
Transporting wild animals back to their natural environment for free at the request of wildlife protection bodies is a goal of the Qatar Airways Cargo as part its “Rewild the Planet” initiative.
“Repatriating wild animals is a major undertaking, especially over such a great distance. But we were able to count on the Qatar Airways Cargo teams, who are 100% behind us and the work we do. They played a critical role. Without them, these seven lions would still be in captivity in atrocious conditions. So, thank you on their behalf,” Lionel De Lange, founder and director of WOW, was quoted as saying in a news release.
“Repatriating wild animals is a major undertaking, especially over such a great distance. But we were able to count on the Qatar Airways Cargo teams, who are 100% behind us and the work we do. They played a critical role. Without them, these seven lions would still be in captivity in atrocious conditions. So, thank you on their behalf,” Lionel De Lange, founder and director of WOW, was quoted as saying in a news release.
Transporting wild animals requires close cooperation between the specific services involved within Qatar Airways Cargo and the NGO staff, who looks after the animals’ well-being during the entire journey.
The seven lions rescued had lived in captivity for years, and the NGO says they will never be able to adapt in the wild. They will spend the next few months in a protected area in which they will simply learn to explore nature. They will then be transferred to a much larger nature reserve where they will be protected and taken care of for the rest of their lives.
Qatar Airways Cargo has pledged to continue this program so that transport costs of logistics will never prevent NGOs from saving the planet’s wildlife.
The information is from Qatar Airways.
Check out the video of the trip on YouTube:
