Lioness relieved of too tight collar

Category: Carnivores general, zimbabwe | Date: Jun 21 2009 | By: zimbabwewilddogs

Hi folks,

Well we’ve put the drugs to good use already. Last night we mangaged to immobilise an adult lioness who had been fitted a few years ago with a collar that had recently become too tight. The poor lion had very laboured breathing as a result, and I’m sure it will be a big relief to her to be freed of the collar. We did the immobilisation with the help of the Sango Ranch, particularly ecologist Dusty Joubert and manager Dave Goosen.

The mark left by the collar (it’s just darker hair and will fade in time).

The mark left by the collar

I imagine many of you are probably thinking that animals shouldn’t be collared in the first place and would point to things like this to back up your argument. But I must say that, so long as the collaring is done for the right reasons (which this was), the use of collars allows for far greater conservation efforts than would be possible otherwise. The important thing is that the collared animal is regularly located and if there is any problem like this, it is removed as soon as possible, as we have done here. It is also very unusual indeed for the collar to cause the animal any discomfort whatsoever. Collar weights are carefully regulated and so long as they are not too tight (or too loose), have virtually no affect on the animal.

Anyhow, in this case, a problem did develop, and it was great to be able to respond to the call for help for this lioness, given that we had the drugs to immobilise her. Thanks again to all of you who donated to our appeal.

The immobilisation - my shirt is being used as a blindfold!

Immobilisation of a lioness for collar removal

The whole immobilisation went smoothly, although was made somewhat more exciting by the presence of two other groups of lions who had been drawn to the same bait and stayed around throughout the time we were working on the lioness… lots of roaring, fighting and general cavorting going on around us!

Back soon,

Rosemary

Tags: collar removal, lion, lion immobilisation, wild dog project, zimbabwe

5 Responses to “Lioness relieved of too tight collar”

Dana, on 21 Jun 2009

My question is who put the collar on the lioness? Wouldn’t it have been their responsibility to tranquilize(sp)her? I’m just glad that you were able to fix the problem :>)

Francisco, on 21 Jun 2009

Responsability post-investigation; something like that occur in the National Park “Nahuelbuta”, Chile, some years ago, an investigator was put collars on many individuals of the Nahuelbuta Park poblation of Darwin Fox (Lycalopex fulvipes), I don’t know the number, but some foxes appeared died, some collars appeared on the ground, and today, since at least two years, nobody did see any fox in the park area; migration, extintion?

Congrats for your work, its a motivation for the students who wants develop investigation in a near future.

zimbabwewilddogs, on 22 Jun 2009

Hi Dana,

The collar was put on in a different area because the lioness was one of a group that was translocated to the conservancy in 2005, which made things more difficult to get them to come and do it. But you are right - theoretically it should have been their responsibility. But since the lioness is living in the conservancy now, it was something we were happy to help with.

Rosemary

WANDA - ATLANTA, on 22 Jun 2009

I actually ask about this on another blog last week and was assured they are checked for getting too tight –
I rescued a dog and dealt with the embedded collar -
IT IS A HORRIBLE THING - this needs to be looked into on
ALL LION COLLARING PROJECTS!

jimwrench, on 08 Jul 2009

thank god somebody still thinks about gods heavenly creatures no matter how big or small, how tame or apparently dangerous, if not for people like you. how long would we have them ? thanks for all you do!!!!!!!!!!!

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