[10:20, 30/05/2022] Chris Foggin: I think there was a post a short while back re successfully baiting hyena with Zoletil and midazolam? I can't now find the details. If correct, please could someone re-send them. I am dealing with a very shy, stock-killing lioness with cubs, and may be the only option. [10:25, 30/05/2022] Zoe Glyphis: From Joao Almeida: To give you feedback on the hyena capture. We pre baited / habituated a specific clan of around 10 animals for about a week but the animals never got to tolerate a vehicle / lights etc and only feed well when we left. After speaking with a few people, I decided to go heavy on drugs in the bait. On the capture night we had the front halt of a kudu cow and small pieces of liver, kidneys and heart, used 120 mg of injectable medetomidine and 300 mg of midazolam (20 X 15mg Dormicum tablets) spread equally in the bait. The medetomidine (40 mg /ml) was diluted in 60 ml of water for injection and injected all around the carcass prioritising neck and other large muscles. The laced pieces of liver etc. were placed around the carcass to give the lower ranking animals a chance of feeding. We installed a camera trap with SIM card, called until the hyenas were around and left the location. Animals started feeding soon after and we left them for about 2 hours. When we drove back there were about 6-7 animals heavily sedated within 80 meters from the bait site. Darting was relatively easy (average 30 meters) , but the animals were still shy and did not tolerate white bright lights - only spotlight with a red filter. Most of the animals ran after darting and it was absolutely critical to have a good quality thermal camera with us to find the darted animals (telemetry darts would also work, but you will need to hit the neck, otherwise they will pull it off). All animals were immobilised with 60 mg Zoletil and 2.5 mg medetomidine loaded onto vehicles and taken to the holding boma in another reserve in southern Mozambique. Total immobilization time was close to 8 hours. Top-ups were given every 1.5 hours (20 mg Zoletil + 1 mg medetomidine). Reversal was with 30 mg atipamezole. All animals were standing and exploring the boma within 15 min after antidote administration.
