Evidence for Infanticide in Bottlenose Dolphins of the Western North Atlantic

Nine bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) calves that stranded in Virginia in 1996 and 1997 died of severe blunt-force trauma. Injuries were concentrated on the head and chest and multiple rib fractures, lung lacerations, and soft tissue contusions were prominent. Skeletal and/or soft tissue trau...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Wildlife Diseases
Main Authors: Dunn, Dale G., Barco, Susan G., Pabst, D. Ann, McLellan, William A.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:unknown
Published: ODU Digital Commons 2002
Subjects:
Bottlenose dolphin
Cetacean
Infanticide
Marine mammal
Pathology
Strandings
Trauma
Tursiops truncatus
Marine Biology
Veterinary Medicine
Zoology
North Atlantic
Phocoena phocoena
Online Access:https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/biology_fac_pubs/348
https://doi.org/10.7589/0090-3558-38.3.505
https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/context/biology_fac_pubs/article/1366/viewcontent/Barco_2002_evidence_for.pdf
Description
Summary:Nine bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) calves that stranded in Virginia in 1996 and 1997 died of severe blunt-force trauma. Injuries were concentrated on the head and chest and multiple rib fractures, lung lacerations, and soft tissue contusions were prominent. Skeletal and/or soft tissue trauma occurred bilaterally in all of the calves. One had a bite wound across the left mandible that exhibited deep punctures consistent with the tooth placement in an adult bottlenose dolphin. The lesions were not compatible with predation, boat strike, fisheries interactions, rough-surf injury, or blast injury. However, they were similar to traumatic injuries described in stranded bottlenose dolphin calves and harbor porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) in Great Britain attributed to violent dolphin interactions. The evidence suggests that violent dolphin behavior was the cause of the trauma in the nine calves reported here and that infanticide occurs in bottlenose dolphins of the western North Atlantic.

Similar Items