A Note on Chemical Immobilization of Zoo Animals with Blow Pipe

Chemical immobilization in wild animals has been in practice for quite sometime. With advent of newer drugs and devices, immobilization technique has become a practical pocedure for restraint of wild animals. The blow pipe, which is used to deliver the drug was developed and described by Wentages (1975), Wiesner (1975, 1977), Ruedi and Voellm (1976) and Haigh and Hopf (1976). I t is quite cheap, quick, practical and safe for routine managment of zoo animals viz., restraint, surgery, vaccination and clinical diagnostic work etc. In this study* various animals were immobilized using Ketamine-xylazine (HBM) or etorphine (M-99) plus xylazine using blow pipe after Wiesner (1977), at Delhi Zoological Park.