Pathological anatomy and death cause of a stranded Risso’s dolphin (Grampus griseus)

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  • (1 Third Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources, Xiamen 361005, China)
    (2 Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430072, China)
    (3 Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Marine Ecological Conservation and Restoration, Xiamen 361005, China)
    (4 Ocean College, Shandong University, Weihai 264209, China)
    (5 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China)

Online published: 2020-04-09

Abstract

Strandings of Risso’s dolphins(Grampus griseus) on the coastal areas of Chinese mainland are relatively scarce. On July 10th 2019, a live Risso’s dolphin stranded at Shimajiao waters in Xuwen, Zhanjiang City, Guangdong Province and died in a half hour. This paper reports the external morphological characteristics, skeletal measurements, necropsy results, and death cause of this stranded Risso’s dolphin. The dolphin was an adult female with a body length of 252.0 cm and a body weight of about 130.0 kg. Its body condition was poor, with little subcutaneous blubber, but external examination revealed no apparent fatal traumas. The dolphin’s skull was 45.6 cm in length; its vertebra arrangement was C7+T12+L23+Ca24=66, with 12 pairs of ribs and 19 V-bones. Large amounts of sand were found in the respiratory and digestive tracts; Furthermore, two rubber gloves (exceeding 30 cm in size) were present in the forestomach, and there were almost no chyme or feces in the stomachs and intestines, respectively. We infer that the dolphin may not have been able to eat and digest properly due to the stomach functional obstruction caused by the gloves, resulting in excessive depletion of the subcutaneous fat layer, which eventually led to the live stranding of the weakened animal; While stranded, sand entered the respiratory tracts resulting in inadequate breathing and finally death. Our results confirm that the ingestion of marine debris is an immediate threat to marine mammals, especially to cetaceans which mainly prey on cephalopods, and thus at present marine pollution caused by hard degradable waste cannot be ignored anymore.

Cite this article

ZENG Qianhui, AIERKEN Reyilamu, LI Jia, ZHONG Mingding, ZHU Qian, ZHENG Jinsong . Pathological anatomy and death cause of a stranded Risso’s dolphin (Grampus griseus)[J]. ACTA THERIOLOGICA SINICA, 2020 , 40(2) : 152 -161 . DOI: 10.16829/j.slxb.150364

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