A tranquilliser gun (also spelled tranquilizer gun or tranquillizer gun), capture gun, or dart gun, is a non-lethal gun used for capture via a special chemical.[1] Tranquilliser guns shoot darts filled with tranquilliser that, when injected, temporarily sedate an animal or human, 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 use for capturing wildlife without injury. Tranquilliser darts can also be fired by crossbow or breath-powered blowgun.
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While for thousands of years various tribal peoples have used poisoned arrows, (for example tipped with Curare), to incapacitate animals before killing them, the modern tranquilliser gun was invented only 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 that have had an enormous impact on the treatment and study of animals around the world.
In Kenya in the early 1960s, a team headed by Dr. Tony Pooley and Dr. Toni Harthoorn discovered that various 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.
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.
Several immobilising drugs have been invented for use in tranquilliser darts.[4] These include:
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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.
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 means that effective use requires an estimate of the weight of the target to be able to determine how many darts (if any) can be used. Shooting too few would result in no effect whatsoever, while too many can kill the target [6]
Some examples of dart guns include:[7][8]