AUTHOR=Puig-Lozano Raquel , Fernández Antonio , Saavedra Pedro , Tejedor Marisa , Sierra Eva , De la Fuente Jesús , Xuriach Aina , Díaz-Delgado Josué , Rivero Miguel Antonio , Andrada Marisa , Bernaldo de Quirós Yara , Arbelo Manuel TITLE=Retrospective Study of Traumatic Intra-Interspecific Interactions in Stranded Cetaceans, Canary Islands JOURNAL=Frontiers in Veterinary Science VOLUME=7 YEAR=2020 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/veterinary-science/articles/10.3389/fvets.2020.00107 DOI=10.3389/fvets.2020.00107 ISSN=2297-1769 ABSTRACT=
Aggressive encounters involving cetacean species are widely described in the literature. However, detailed pathological studies regarding lesions produced by these encounters are scarce. From January 2000 to December 2017, 540 cetaceans stranded and were necropsied in the Canary Islands, Spain. Of them, 24 cases of eight species presented social traumatic lesions produced by cetaceans of the same or different species. All the cases presented severe multifocal vascular changes, 50% (12/24) presented fractures affecting mainly the thoracic region, 41.7% (10/24) acute tooth-rake marks, 37.5% (9/24) undigested food in the stomach, 33.3% (8/24) tracheal edema, and 12.5% (3/24) pulmonary perforation. In 10 cases with tooth-rake marks, the distance between the teeth, allowed us to further identify the aggressor species: four cases were compatible with killer whales (