Hendrik Hansen: If you use medetomidine as tranquilliser instead of azaperone and butorphanol as the opioid to dart and walk into the crate, they do not push forward in the transport crate, so your risk of closing the nostrils becomes very very low. Yes, we all moved 100s of rhino without problems but most of us had one dying because of pushing forward because of too low or too high dose of azaperone. I trust in the behaviour with butorphanol and medetomidine a lot more to prevent that one in a thousand. It happened so often that the design of the front of crates has always been a debate. Alex Lewis: I agree, I have used high azaperone doses but give naltrexone in crate and they don't push. I prefer to give them a big compartment in truck and they do very well.
