Reported Causes of Death of Captive Killer Whales (Orcinus orca).

摘要

Inquiries were made of the six major oceanaria in North America that maintain killer whales to determine sex, date of capture or acquisition, length and weight at acquisition, date of death, length and weight at death or the nearest recorded figures to March 1978, and cause of death. Causes of death determined at necropsy included mediastinal abscesses, pyometra, pneumonia, influenza, salmonellosis, nephritis, Chediak-Higashi syndrome, fungus infection, ruptured aorta, cerebral hemorrhage, and a perforated post-pyloric ulcer. Captive females appear to have a higher mortality rate than males. Growth rates for whales that died were greater than for those that survived.