Chuma, [10 Sep 2022 at 09:28:42]: Good morning! Can someone comment on the effect of ketamine on the memory (ability to remember past events esp. stressful ones or any post capture behavioural influences) of free ranging wild carnivores like lions? Erik Verrynne, [10 Sep 2022 at 09:55:56]: Good morning! Ketamine or Zoletil combinations do not seem to cause retrograde amnesia. We may have to consider using diazepam iv shortly after going down. But I don’t know it it has the same effect on lions and at what dosage. The wild lions I work with unfortunately remember every darting event and now recognize my vehicle and become skittish. Adult males takes a bit longer to become skittish. Baiting, especially when used in combination with a calling station, has the potential to neutralize the negative memory and where I was allowed to bait, males and subadults still responded well despite being darted before. Females seem to be less dictated by food and become skittish soon. We even had two adult male customers that were repeatedly willing to take a dart for an easy meal. They became a nuisance during darting in their home range. The challenge of evaluating behaviour lies in the problem that you often work with a pride and immobilize only certain individuals. So it’s difficult if the the rest of the pride members also recognize the darting impact and change their behaviour. Then using drugs causing retrograde amnesia is obviously useless. Chuma, [10 Sep 2022 at 16:39:04]: Thanks a lot. Anyone who can advise on diazepam dose in lions or with different observations on anaesthesia vs lion memory, please? Luis Amaral, [11 Sep 2022 at 17:16:08]: Hi Chuma. The best amnesic effect is midazolam. The protocol you can use in lions is butorphanol 0.2 -0.3 mg /kg medetomidine 0.05 mg/kg and midazolam 0.15 mg/kg. Reverse with atipamezole and naltrexone. Short procedures 30 to 40 minutes.
