A tranquilliser gun, capture gun or dart gun, is a non-lethal gun which is intended for chemical capture.^[1] Tranquilliser guns shoot darts filled with tranquilliser that, when injected, temporarily sedate the animal so that it may be handled (or captured) safely. The tranquilliser can be a sedative, anaesthetic, ^[2] or paralytic agent. Tranquilliser guns have a long history of being used to capture wildlife without injury. Tranquilliser darts can also be fired by crossbow or breath-powered blowgun.

Contents 1 History 2 Characteristics 3 Tranquilliser agents 4 Military and police use 5 Examples 6 References 7 Sources and literature

[edit] History

The tranquilliser gun was invented in the 1950s by New Zealander Colin Murdoch.^[3] While working with colleagues who were studying introduced wild goat and deer populations in New Zealand, Murdoch had the idea that the animals would be much easier to catch, examine and release if a dose of tranquilliser could be administered by projection from afar. Murdoch went on to develop a range of rifles, darts and pistols which have had an enormous impact on the treatment and study of animals around the world.

At the time Murdoch started testing his gun the only tranquilliser drugs available were curare, and alkaloids of nicotine, both of which tended to have fatal reactions in a high percentage of animals shot. In partnership with pharmaceutical companies, he helped develop more sophisticated drugs with predictable and safe reactions.

In Kenya in the early 1960s, a team headed by Dr. Tony Pooley and Dr. Toni Harthoorn discovered that different species, despite being of roughly equal size (for example, the rhinoceros and the buffalo), needed very different doses and spectra of drugs to safely immobilise them. In some species the margin of error is very small indeed.

[edit] Characteristics

The dart, essentially a ballistic syringe loaded with an immobilising drug and hypodermic needle, is propelled from the gun by means of compressed gas. In flight, the dart is stabilised by a tailpiece, a tuft of fibrous material, making it behave somewhat like a badminton shuttlecock. By substituting a different tailpiece, the same syringe design may be used interchangeably in airguns and blowguns. The needle may be plain, or collared; a collared needle has a barb-like circumferential ring that improves retention of the needle and syringe for recovery and to assure that the full dose is administered.

On impact with the animal, the momentum of a steel ball at the rear of the dart pushes the syringe plunger and injects the dose of barbiturate or other drug into the animal. The drug causes torpor and prostration within minutes. Because of the power of the drugs, the handlers then have to move quickly to secure the animal for transport, monitor its vital signs, protect its eyes and ears, and then inject antidotes when needed. Many large animals are acutely sensitive to stress and can easily die without careful treatment; in order to counter stress in targeted animals the gun is quiet, and there is usually a valve on the gun to control the dart velocity.

[edit] Tranquilliser agents

Several immobilising drugs have been invented for use in tranquillizer darts.^[4] These include:

Azaperone Combelen (Bayer) Domosedan (Farmos) Dormicum (Roche) Detomidine (Farmos) Fentanyl (Janssen Pharmaceutica)	Etorphine hydrochloride (M–99, Novartis) Haloperidol (Kyron Laboratory) Immobilon, a mixture of etorphine and a phenothioazine tranquilizer such as acepromazine or methotrimeprazine. Serenace (Searle) Valium 10 (Roche) Xylazine (Rompun, Bayer)

These substances have been invented for animal injection only. Humans are far more affected by the drugs, as they trigger respiratory problems. The injection or consumption of only a drop of M–99 is sufficient to kill an adult man within a few minutes if the correct antidote treatment is not administered immediately.^[5] Therefore, instead of the substances found above, only incapacitating agents would be suitable for military or police use.

[edit] Military and police use

Tranquilliser darts are not generally included in military or police less-than-lethal arsenals because no drug is yet known that would be quickly and reliably effective on humans without the risks of side effects or an overdose. This as effective use requires an estimate of weight to be able to determine how many darts (if any) can be fired on the human target. Shooting too few would result in no effect whatsoever, while too much can kill the target.^[6]

[edit] Examples

Some examples of dart guns include:^[7][8]

• Paxarms Mark 24B dart gun
• Pneu-Dart equipment Model 190B Air Activated Pistol
• Pneu-Dart equipment Model 179B CO2 Pistol
• Pneu-Dart equipment Model 178 Air Activated Rifle
• Pneu-Dart equipment X-Caliber
• Pneu-Dart equipment Model 176B CO2 Powered Rifle
• Daystate Tranquilliser and Airgun Manufacturers Equipment Mark1 dart gun
• Daystate Tranquilliser and Airgun Manufacturers Equipment Ranger dart gun
• Palmer Cap-Chur Short Range Projector
• Palmer Cap-Chur Mid Range Projector
• Palmer Cap-Chur Long Range Projector
• Palmer Cap-Chur Extra Long Range Projector

[edit] References

[edit] Sources and literature

• Harthoorn, Antonie Marinus, The Flying Syringe 
• Harthoorn, Antonie Marinus, The Chemical Capture of Animals 
• Anti-personnel dart design
• Blow gun innoculating dart design

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