In December 1997, the residents of Florya, Yeşilyurt opened their eyes on a morning like any other and when they went to their windows to look outside to see what the weather was like, they could not believe their eyes when they saw hundreds of green parrots perched on the trees!
I recently heard this story from a dear friend of mine and I looked it up for myself - and guess what else I discovered.
It turns out that the presence of green parrots, a tropical bird, in Istanbul is almost an urban legend! The first one was a story told by a pilot friend of mine who had also flown cargo flights in the past: The parrots that were released after a hatch was accidentally opened at the Atatürk Airport Cargo terminal, landed in a colony on trees in the nearby neighborhoods, rested for a while and then spread all over the city; and the second one is about a truck carrying parrots that crashed in Kavacık-Beykoz on the TEM Highway causing hundreds of parrots to escape.
According to a news report I came across in 2020, green parrots, which are native to India and Pakistan, have been happily living in the parks and gardens as well as in the greener neighborhoods of the cities for the last few years. More than half of the more than 10,000 green parrots in our country are found in Istanbul, followed by cities like Yalova, Izmir, Ankara, Konya. They seem to like our locale.
Logistics is one of the world's biggest industries. No matter where it is produced, it needs to be transported to get to its end user. Whether by air, sea or land, damages to the assets transported during this shipment are also the subject of transportation insurance.
Livestock transportation requires special methods and security measures. Live cargo can be livestock, as well as other animal species that need to be transported for different (scientific, social or commercial) purposes, as well as living things such as rooted trees and flowers.
In addition to the transportation of live cargo to the destination without any damage to the transported commodity, live cargo transportation has different dimensions such as preventing, reducing and eliminating the damages that the cargo may cause to the environment and the surroundings in the event of an incident, and the damages that the live cargo may cause to the transport vehicle during transportation. Especially in the case of farm animals, in addition to risks such as crushing, jamming, falling, it includes interesting risks such as dying due to stress or panic, throwing offspring (premature birth), or stomping, kicking, damaging the vehicle and other animals, if any, even the transport vehicle, or escaping and disappearing.
You have probably come across them on the roads. Racehorses are transported by special vehicles and always have the sign “Attention Racehorse” on them. The transported cargo is a living creature in the first place, if it is startled, it may pose a threat to itself, the vehicle and the ride, moreover, the racehorse is a very valuable cargo.
A cage full of squirrels transported to Istanbul by air cargo is scattered in the cargo compartment of the plane due to the cage door not being properly closed. As soon as this is detected, a panic begins. First of all, these animals are very small and agile, they can run and hide anywhere. While chasing the squirrels running around the apron, funny moments happen like in a movie (I'm trying to visualize how to catch a squirrel). Imagine a huge plane, partially loaded. When the plane is towed to a special place and the loaded cargo is taken out in a controlled manner, funny things happened, the squirrels escaped, but they are not sure of the consequences. No matter how cute it is, a squirrel is a rodent, it can gnaw the cables of the airplane and pose a great danger to flight safety. In desperation, they had to completely evacuate the plane and then spray it with carbon dioxide gas. Subsequently, the squirrels caused a loss of 1 million USD due to the fact that the plane was both taken off the flight and kept waiting for safety.
Some may remember the news story of 21,000 sheep that drowned and perished in 1991 when a livestock ship sailing from the Black Sea to Marmara collided with another ship near Anadolu Hisarı and sank. Five crew members also lost their lives in this accident.
Some years ago, as Turkish contractors were doing a lot of construction in Libya, a close friend of mine was handling procurement (purchasing and logistics supply) operations on behalf of the contractors. Late one afternoon, he called me and said, "We are going to make a shipment this evening, the guys forgot to inform you." “Hundreds of tropical fish from Bali are being transported for a huge aquarium being put inside a hotel in Libya.” Isn't it a wonderful image when we picture it? But how tedious it is to transport. The fish are placed individually in bags with water taken from their habitat and the bags are packed in a shockproof way. The temperature has to be kept at a certain level to prevent the fish from dying during the journey. There is also the possibility of the bags bursting due to pressure and making the whole place wet. The value of the fish is quite high (6 digits). Fortunately, they were transported without any accidents or damage. In the evening, when I was in the market shopping for groceries, I will never forget the conversation we had with the transportation manager of the insurance company. Who knows what those who overheard the conversation must have thought. Later, trees and very special plants worth thousands of dollars each were also transported for similar construction projects.
A Turkish citizen living in the USA wants to bury his beloved dog in the garden of his house in Turkey after the dog dies and he brings the dog's body on a plane. When the plane arrives in Turkey, the cargo personnel receive the box (on long flights, big dogs are put to sleep and carried in the cargo hold to avoid stress). They check and see that the animal is dead! Of course, they don't know what to do, they are in a panic. An animal entrusted to their care, a life friend, how will they explain it to its owner?! Humanitarian side of the situation prevails and they cannot say "sorry, your dog died while traveling", they decide to compensate for the loss they think they have caused and find a dog of the same breed. Imagine the surprise of the owner when he came to the terminal to pick up his dog's body and saw the dog in the flesh!
Let's not forget those who transport animals on their own instead of using a proper cargo service. There are many cases that have made the news, such as the python snake that was carried in a bag and escaped; the escaped parrot that escaped from its owner's hands during the security passage at Atatürk Airport causing all the security personnel to mobilize to catch it; the lion that escaped from the circus and wandered the streets of Rome, causing panic in the city. We may laugh when we read the news, but I don't think those who transport them and those who have to deal with the consequences laugh as much as we do.
Not every animal transportation requires logistics services. Up to a certain weight, we can take our pets on our laps and take them with us in accordance with the rules of the transportation company. On airplanes, our cute friends that we carry in their tiny bags can sometimes give us a very difficult time by running away and making noise.
Most of the examples I have mentioned above are damages that can be covered by special clauses in transportation insurances. As I have already mentioned in “Marine Insurance” and the following articles, the Marine market, with its unique dynamics, provides a very rich and wide range of coverage at every step of logistics.
I think the most romantic cargo I have ever heard of was a huge plane full of red roses that was flown from Antalya to Paris on the eve of Valentine's Day.
Happy Sunday to everyone.
Links
Uçağa Zorunlu İniş Yaptıran Köpek (Dog Forced Landing of a Plane)
Gürültücü Köpek Krizi (Noisy Dog Crisis)
Sirkten Kaçan Aslan (Noisy Dog Crisis)
İstanbul Boğazında Boğulan Koyunlar (Sheep drowned in the Bosphorus)
Afacan Papağan (Mischievous Parrot)
Firari Sincaplar (Squirrels on the Run)
Yeşil Papağanlar (Green Parrots)
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