WildLife Group
3.
4.
5.
6.
of the SAVA
Team handling animals must get used to the
slightly different behavior of immobilized animal.
Can easily approach an animal while still standing
and move the animal into convenient and safe
position but you must get used to judging the
behavior of the darted animal.
Slightly more difficult to keep animal in groups
when immobilizing groups of animals with the
helicopter.
More challenging to collect blood from
immobilized animals due to the lower blood
pressure.
Tranquilization regime for transport more
challenging in some species such as roan. In
roan and sable, you need to give atipamezole on
loading to prevent them from lying down in the
truck. It might be challenging to then decide on a
good tranquilizer to keep the animals calm during
transport.
More possibilities:
Any animal that develop respiratory distress or other
complications one can use yohimbine as partial antidote
or atipamezole or a combination to get various levels
of reversal of the α2 effect. Also possible to reverse
the potent opioid and use a α2 agonist, butorphanol,
ketamine combination to keep the animal down for
longer procedures.
Reversal regime:
Alpha2 agonist:
Atipamezole is administered at a dose 1 mg: 1 mg with
medetomidine for satisfactory reversal. Yohimbine
and atipamezole combinations are often used: 50ml
of yohimbine (6.25mg/ml) is combined with 2ml of
atipamezole (50mg/ml), then 0.3ml of this mixture
is used to reverse 1mg of medetomidine. yohimbine
alone used in specific situations where partial reversal
is appropriate naltrexone is used to reverse thiafentanil
Summary:
The low dose potent opioid, low dose α2 agonist
drug combination achieves a superior quality, safe
anesthesia at much lower dosages than published drug
combination of drugs in most large ungulates in South
Africa. It also provides the vet more opportunity to
8
manipulate the immobilization of large ungulates to
better suit specific situations.
A special thanks to Mr. Frans Stapelberg of Lekkerleef Buffel
Boerdery for allowing me to do this work on his excellent
animals and in the best handling facilities. Without his
faith in this project, the work would not be possible.
Example 1: Dart for buffalo cow in good
condition from the helicopter, on a reserve of
10 000 ha.
Drug Traditional
dose HH dose
Thiafentanil 7 mg 1 mg
Medetomidine - 4 mg
Azaperone 40 mg 40 mg
Downtime 5 min 6 min*
*Potential to walk this animal safely and easy before she goes down to
a road or safer area.
Example 2: Dart for kudu bull from the
helicopter, in an area with poor road access
Drug Traditional
dose HH dose
Thiafentanil 12 mg 2 mg
Medetomidine 4 mg 12 mg
Azaperone 40 mg 40 mg
Downtime 7 min Standing 7
mins, down 9
min*
*From 6 min the animal can be caught and with a cattle prodder and
rope be walked for 10 min or more to a road.