[10:56, 25/04/2022] Chris Smith: Hi all. I would like to give some more feedback on some hippo capture that we did over the past few days. Drug used: concentrated BAM (butorphanol 150mg/ml; azaperone and medetomidine 60mg/ml) Hyalase: 5000 IU per dart Naltrexone Yohimbine Atipamezole Dart: Pneudart 3cc 2,5 inch aluminium type p (we did try the plastic Pneudart 2cc, 2,5inch needles but found it to be a bit light and deflected in the water so not going to use them, only for top ups if you have a clear shot) Gun: X-calibre We successfully loaded 3 hippo (large bull, adult cow, subadult bull) over a day and had 1 loss (adult cow). [10:57, 25/04/2022] Chris Smith: Hippo 1: Adult cow 3cc of CBAM. Dart placement was back of neck next to ear. Placed a ski rope around her tail at approximately 30 minutes, gave 1cc top up at roping but wasn’t actually needed. Floated into a trailer with boat. Reversed with naltrexone and yohimbine. Gave 100mg WBP and she travelled and offloaded really well. Time from dart in to completing loading was 45min [10:58, 25/04/2022] Chris Smith: Hippo 2: adult cow 2cc of CBAM We actually darted her whilst waiting for hippo 1 to show signs as she gave us a shot. Dart in back of neck close to ear. We got to her at 45mim post dart after loading hippo 1. She was a bit lively to rope so gave her another 2cc in the nose (in hindsight should have just given 1). Showed good signs but just kept missing an opportunity to get a rope around her. She surfaced about 4 times and on the 5th time she didn’t quite get to the surface and she drowned. (Big learning curve for us, farm dam in that section was 9m deep, the other hippo we worked with we kept to the shallow end, no more than 3m and they were able to surface multiple times and much easier to work with. Dam also was very dirty, so we had no visual, the hippo we did at Ebenezer last year was in very clear water so we managed to hook that hippo even though it was on the dam floor and quite deep. Lesson learnt, avoid deep water). [11:01, 25/04/2022]Chris Smith: Hippo 3: subadult bull 2cc of CBAM. Showed good signs at 15min, got a rope around the nose at 17min. (Kept in shallows - much easier to work with!! Pulled to trailer with boat, and then pulled into trailer. Reversed with naltrexone and atipamezole/ yohimbine mix. Gave 80mg WBP and he also travelled and offloaded very well. Time from dart in to completing loading was 42min. [11:01, 25/04/2022] Chris Smith: Hippo 4: adult bull 2,5cc of CBAM. Showed good signs at 25min and managed to get a rope around the mouth. Seriously heavy animal and because we worked in the shallows was a bit more of a challenge to float but with a power boat managed to get it there. Dart side of neck behind ear. Reversed with naltrexone, atipamezole and yohimbine. Gave 150mg WBP for transport and also a successful transport and offloading. Time from dart in until successfully loaded was 55min. [11:02, 25/04/2022] Hippo 1 offloading [11:02, 25/04/2022] Hippo 4 offloading [11:05, 25/04/2022] Chris Smith: Quite relaxed 24 hours post release Commendations from Alex Lewis, Will Fowlds, Douw Grobler, Rob Jackson Richard Burroughs: Excellent info Chris! I assume you gave the reversals IM rather than try for pedal veins? Chris Smith : Yes, all IM. I did 1 attempt on the pedal vein but could not get it.
