Dunn Dale G, Barco Susan G, Pabst D Ann, McLellan William A
Department of Veterinary Pathology, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Washington, DC 20306, USA.
J Wildl Dis. 2002 Jul;38(3):505-10. doi: 10.7589/0090-3558-38.3.505.
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.
1996年和1997年在弗吉尼亚搁浅的9头宽吻海豚（瓶鼻海豚）幼崽死于严重钝器伤。损伤集中在头部和胸部，多处肋骨骨折、肺撕裂和软组织挫伤很明显。所有幼崽双侧均出现骨骼和/或软组织创伤。其中一头左下颌有一处咬伤，有与成年宽吻海豚牙齿位置相符的深深穿刺伤。这些损伤与捕食、船只撞击、渔业互动、海浪冲击伤或爆炸伤不符。然而，它们与英国搁浅的宽吻海豚幼崽和港湾鼠海豚身上描述的创伤性损伤相似，这些损伤归因于海豚之间的暴力互动。证据表明，暴力海豚行为是此处报告的9头幼崽创伤的原因，并且在北大西洋西部的宽吻海豚中发生了杀婴行为。
