Transporting zoo animals between facilities for breeding programs, loans, and acquisitions involves significant welfare risks that require careful planning, species-specific protocols, and post-transport welfare monitoring.
Zoo animal transport welfare requires treating the event as a significant welfare intervention requiring planning proportionate to the risk. Species with high capture myopathy risk — giraffes, large ungulates — require the most careful protocols. Crate training before transport, where animals are habituated to voluntary crate entry, dramatically reduces the acute stress of the transport event itself. Chemical immobilization for crating, where necessary, carries risks that require experienced veterinary oversight. The transport journey itself — noise, vibration, temperature variation, and darkness — causes sustained stress responses measurable through physiological and behavioral indicators. Post-transport monitoring catches the delayed health consequences that sometimes follow apparently successful journeys. The welfare cost of transport must always be weighed against the conservation benefit of genetic management programs that depend on inter-institutional transfers.