A technique for capturing and immobilizing tigers [Wildlife capture techniques, Nepal]

Many ecological and behavioral studies of large mammals involve capture for radiotelemetry and a schedule of recapture for renewing transmitter batteries. In Nepal, at the Royal Chitwan National Park, the authors captured tigers (Panthera tigris ) by modifying traditional Indian and Nepalese hunting methods (Rice 1857, Hicks 1910, Dunbar-Brander 1923, Smythies 1942). Men on foot or on elephants (Elaphus maximus ) drive a tiger, previously localized at a bait, within a funnel of white cloth toward a marksman who immobilizes it with a dart gun. The technique has been used on a variety of large mammals, and permits the efficient recapture of specified individuals.