CAPTIVE AND FIELD-TESTS OF A METHOD FOR IMMOBILIZATION AND EUTHANASIAOF URBAN DEER

Wildlife managers' options for lethally removing white-tailed deer (Od ocoileus virginianus) in urban-suburban areas often are limited by pub lic acceptance or local firearm ordinances. We evaluated a method for lethal removal of deer involving immobilization with succinylcholine c hloride (SC) followed by immediate euthanasia with a penetrating bolt gun. In a study of 13 captive deer, we compared 3 methods of chemical immobilization prior to euthanasia (125-mg SC biobullets, 125-mg SC sy ringe-darts, and xylazine-ketamine [XK; 300 mg/150 mg] syringe-darts) to determine physiological stress and elapsed time from drug delivery to collapse and subsequent euthanasia. Blood cortisol concentrations d id not differ among the methods. Mean times from drug delivery to deer collapse were longer (P= 0.0001) for the XK group (594.3 sec, SE = 77 .8) than for the SC-biobullet (64.0 sec, SE = 6.3) or SC syringe-dart (46.4 sec, SE = 12.2) groups; euthanasia occurred an average of less t han or equal to 20 seconds after collapse for each group. Subsequently , we tested 3 methods of SC biobullet delivery in residential communit ies: 4 deer were shot during daylight from a tree stand, 7 deer were s potlighted at night and shot from a truck, and 2 deer were euthanized in live traps to simulate application in a trap-and-kill program. All deer shot from the tree stand were recovered and euthanized an average of 113 seconds after biobullet delivery. Four of the 7 deer treated a t night were not recovered soon enough for humane euthanasia. Live-tra pped deer collapsed <70 seconds after biobullet delivery to enable hum ane euthanasia.