Research overview: thermoregulation during felid field capture

Maintaining safe body temperature is a critical concern during felid immobilization, as captured cats can become dangerously hyperthermic from exertion and heat in warm climates or hypothermic during prolonged recumbency in cold environments, both of which threaten survival. Monitoring temperature and actively cooling or warming the animal are standard parts of capture protocols. This overview synthesizes the wildlife-medicine literature rather than one source, describing why immobilized cats lose normal thermoregulatory control, how teams use shade, water, and active measures to manage temperature, and why hyperthermia is linked to capture myopathy and mortality. It matters because thermal derangement is among the most common and preventable causes of capture-related death in big cats, making temperature management a routine, lifesaving component of responsible field immobilization.