Immobilization of ocelots and bobcats with ketamine hydrochloride and xylazine hydrochloride.

We immobilized 10 ocelots (Felis pardalis), and 21 bobcats (F. rufus) in south Texas (USA) during March to November 1991 with a mixture of ketamine hydrochloride (KH) and xylazine hydrochloride (XH); two ocelots 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 ocelots and bobcats, respectively. Immobilization times in bobcats were longer (P = 0.08) than in ocelots. Adult female ocelots (18.5 +/- 2.6 mg/kg) 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) doses 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) initial rectal temperatures (39.4 +/- 0.2 C) than bobcats trapped in winter (41.1 +/- 0.4 C). Overall, we observed no effects of KH-XH dose on body temperature.