Jf. Beltran et Me. Tewes, IMMOBILIZATION OF OCELOTS AND BOBCATS WITH KETAMINE-HYDROCHLORIDE ANDXYLAZINE HYDROCHLORIDE, Journal of wildlife diseases, 31(1), 1995, pp. 43-48
We immobilized 10 ocelots (Felis pardalis), and 21 bobcats (F. rufus)
in south Texas (USA) during March to November 1991 with a mixture of k
etamine hydrochloride (KH) and xylazine hydrochloride (XH); two ocelot
s were immobilized twice. Species were immobilized with (mean +/- SE)
14.7 +/- 1.6 mg KH/kg body mass for ocelots, 13.3 +/- 1.8 mg KH/kg for
bobcats, and 1.1 +/- 0.1 mg XH/kg and 1.2 +/- 0.1 mg XH/kg for ocelot
s and bobcats, respectively. Immobilization times in bobcats were long
er (P = 0.08) than in ocelots. Adult female ocelots (18.5 +/- 2.6 mg/k
g) needed larger (P < 0.05) doses of KH than adult males (12.0 +/- 1.7
mg/kg). Bobcats were immobilized during summer with lower initial (8.
6 +/- 0.9 mg/kg, P < 0.001) and total (10.1 +/- 1.3 mg/kg, P = 0.02) d
oses of KH than bobcats immobilized in winter (14.5 +/- 1.0 mg/kg, and
18.5 +/- 3.8 mg/kg, respectively); summer immobilization times (44.3
+/- 3.8 min) were also shorter (P = 0.03) than during winter (59.1 +/-
5.2 min). Bobcats immobilized during summer had lower (P < 0.01) init
ial rectal temperatures (39.4 +/- 0.2 C) than bobcats trapped in winte
r (41.1 +/- 0.4 C). Overall, we observed no effects of KH-XH dose on b
ody temperature.