Wild Aviation Dream – Crocodiles above the clouds
The PC-12 is mainly used to fly passengers and goods from A to B, but occasionally it also carries a slightly different kind of cargo – crocodiles, for example! Recently, 16 young reptiles were flown from Geneva to Morocco at the last minute aboard Fly7’s PC-12 Cargo. 60 years after disappearing from Morocco, the crocodiles are to be gradually reintroduced to their natural environment.
The original plan was to transport the young West African crocodiles bred by the AQUATIS Aquarium Vivarium in Lausanne, Switzerland, aboard a standard scheduled flight. The animals had already been loaded and were ready for departure when the team led by Michel Ansermet, Director of the AQUATIS Aquarium Vivarium, was informed that the temperature required for transportation could not be guaranteed. The warm-blooded animals had to be unloaded again – and now the team found themselves stuck at Geneva Airport with 16 crocodiles on their hands!
Transportation with a Cargo PC-12
Pretty much at the last minute, Michel Ansermet and Davide Staedler, President of the AQUATIS Foundation, hit on the idea of contacting Fly7, which operates a fleet of three PC-24s and over 20 PC-12s. The decision-makers at Fly7 did some quick clarifications and immediately dispatched the Global Airlift Solutions PC-12 Cargo to Geneva. The crocodiles were brought on board in special transport boxes as soon as the PC-12 arrived, and they landed the next morning in Morocco, safe and sound. “We wouldn’t have been able to complete our mission without the PC-12 Cargo and the efforts of the Fly7 team. The animals would have suffered unnecessarily – a project that has been years in the making would have been ruined”, said Davide Staedler.
After arrival, the young crocodiles were taken to a Nature Conservation Center in Agadir, on the south Atlantic coast, where they will remain under observation for a few more months. In June 2025 they will finally be released into the wild – fitted with a GPS collar which will supply the scientists with data. This project is the first of its kind in Africa and only the second worldwide. The AQUATIS Foundation relies on donations to see the mission through to the end.
Newts from southern Italy
The West African crocodile project was not the first time the AQUATIS Foundation was able to rely on the services of a Pilatus aircraft. A few months earlier, the Foundation worked with the University of Calabria to transport 40 rare newts from Italy to Lausanne, so that the animals could reproduce under optimal conditions. “We chose the PC-12 because these newts are extremely delicate and would likely not have survived a normal journey involving long waiting times at the airports”, explains Davide Staedler, adding: “Thanks to the efficient, safe transport aboard the PC-12, we’re now blessed with hundreds of young newts!”
In 2025, the newts will be returned to their native habitat in the south. The AQUATIS Foundation will again rely on the dependability of a PC-12 for this mission too.
Aquatis Fondation
The AQUATIS Foundation, under the leadership of its President, Davide Staedler, supports the promotion of environmental education, species conservation and sustainable development. Among other things, it manages scientific projects for the AQUATIS Aquarium Vivarium in Lausanne, Europe’s largest freshwater aquarium. In partnership with Swiss and foreign universities, as well as renowned international scientific institutes, the Foundation offers visitors temporary exhibitions on current environmental topics, as well as lectures and scientific conferences. Thanks in part to the efforts of the AQUATIS Foundation, major successes have been achieved in the area of environmental protection. They include – in addition to the West African crocodile conservation breeding program and the project to protect a rare species of newt – a project to protect the Komodo dragon found in Indonesia.