Animal Handling

Capturing carnivores to fit collars is extremely safe, because the drugs we use are not dangerous; it is literally impossible to kill a carnivore even with massive overdoses of ketamine and medetomidine. In contrast, the drugs used on herbivores need to be very precisely calculated according to the animal’s weight to avoid overdose. We either capture lions by darting them at a bait, or by trapping them using a non-damaging technique we developed; in over one hundred trappings, we have never had a lion injured. Although we try to avoid darting pregnant females, there is no evidence that darting affects pregnancies; at the Berkeley Hyena Project, pregnant hyenas are routinely darted for ultrasound exams, as are big cats and other carnivores in zoos.

Wild animals adjust to wearing a collar just as a dog does – very quickly.  In many cases, they barely seem aware of it even when it is newly affixed, and in all cases they adapt to it within a few hours.  We have frequently seen lions and hyenas wake up from anesthesia and seem totally oblivious to the collar that was not there an hour before.  The collar does no harm when properly fitted, and the animal shows no sign that it is aware of it.  Studies comparing the life spans of lions wearing collars with those without collars showed no difference; there is simply no evidence that lions are in any way jeopardized by wearing a collar. Lastly, all handling is carried out according to Animal Use Protocol R191 from the University of California, Berkeley.