Immobilising elephants

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32566, 27 March 1971, Page 10

Immobilising elephants

The Flying Syringe. By A. M. Harthoorn. Geoffrey files. 271 pp. Bibliography. Index. Like Romain Gary’s imprisoned hero in “The Roots of Heaven,” whose longing for freedom and self-realisation was expressed in empathic dreams of freerunning elephants, Dr Toni Harthoorn at the beginning of his career as a veterinarian, saw the conservation of the vast herds of African wild animals as a sacred trust, as “the last chance for mankind to redeem itself.” Harthoom did more than dream and “The Flying Syringe” is the adventurous story of his endeavours. Twenty years ago, Dr Harthoorn took up the position of head of the department of Physiology and Biochemistry at the University of East Africa in Kampala, Uganda. His first five years were spent in energetically establishing the department and ensuring its smooth functioning. When Dr Harthoorn began to concentrate his efforts on the moreabsorbing field research, his earlier work on animal circulation, surgical shock and anaesthesia in Britain and European training Us a physiologist and pharmacologist were of great benefit, and his unique contribution to the wellbeing of the wild animals of Africa—bringing all these qualifications into play was the perfecting of a technique of drug-induced animal immobilisation using projectile syringes. (Hence the title, which at first incorrectly conjures

up pictures of an air-borne vet.) Dr Harthoorn found any method to be ethically unacceptable that was not rigidly and scientifically controlled and that did not rule out mortality in healthy animals. After years of hazardous field work and meticulous research, deaths were eventually reduced to an incredible one in 100. A variety of drugs were tried and discarded; a synthetic morphine mixture called Etorphine or M 99 was found at last to possess the necessary requirements, and as an antidote Dr Harthoorn found that Cyprenorphine (M 285 got an animal on its feet in three-quarters of a minute. The loaded darts were shot from long bows, cross bows and gas guns, making available to Dr Harthoorn and his team a wide range of animals for valuable research, medical treatment, or more commonly, relocation—as in the case of the many starving animals rescued from islands in the man-made Kariba Dam, and the white rhinoceros in Natal. For early expeditions Dr Harthoorn used a converted three-ton Thames lorry, which he and university colleagues fitted-out as a mobile laboratory with everything including a home-made deep freeze. The staggering enterprise of Dr Harthoorn and the men and women who work with him is typified in the team’s 1958 expedition into the Semliki area to procure the urine of a pregnant elephant. “Our ignorance was great.” Harthoorn writes, “and the mechanism whereby the elephant carried its conceptus for twenty-two months was mysterious and highly intriguing. The fact that pregnancy could not be recognised from the elephant’s shape, added a further problematical element to the already uncertain undertaking.” Being Dr Harthoorn he secured the urine and in flying it to London, was forced because of its excessive weight, to secret it in beer bottles at the bottom of the carrycot of a friend’s baby. Such incidents—and the pages are full of diverting friends and fauna—remind one irresistibly of the books of Gerald Durrell, but although their topics are similar the two are worlds apart; Durrel is the hors-d-oeuvre, Harthoorn the feast. The author now lives with his wife Sue, also a veterinarian, and their five children, in Nairobi where he continues his conservation work for the University of East Africa. World famous as a pioneer in the use of immobilising drugs he has travelled and lectured widely. The book has 78 photographs, 17 line drawings by Harthoorn, two maps and illustrated endpapers.

THE NEW SPACE ENCYCLOPAEDIA, produced under the general editorship of M. T. Bizony, has an impressive list of contributors who include Sir Bernard Lovell, Professor of Radio Astronomy, Manchester University, Sir Harold Spencer Jones, late Astronomer Royal, Homer Newell, deputy administrator National Aeronautical and Space Administration, Patrick Moore, author of “The Moon” and R. H. Garstang, Professor of Astrophysics, University of Colorado. Ih encyclopaedia form, this single volume presents space as a whole, remarkably, comprehensively and efficiently. It combines details of satellites, missiles and Apollo explorations with a complete survey of all branches of astronomy. The subjects treated range to the farthest galaxies, which are forever out of our reach; on our “home ground” special emphasis has been placed on the Moon, which is now accessible to us, and the planets which one day might be. The volume is extensively illustrated with relevant pictures and diagrams. The print, paper and binding are of quality that should give the service required of a frequently-used encyclopaedia. One cannot imagine a more handy reference book on the subject for secondary schools. The publishers are Artemis Press, Sussex, whose New Zealand agents are Oswald-Sealy.