Necropsy Update: Stranded Scotland Orca

An update from the Scottish Marine Animal Strandings Scheme about the necropsy conducted on the orca found dead in North Uist, Scotland last week. The orca is still yet to be ID'd.

"Killer Whale update

Just to update you on the killer whale stranding we necropsied last week on North Uist. Thanks to Jac and co for locating it, and John for agreeing to a 6am start to move the carcase out of the surf, we were able to undertake a full necropsy and reserve the skeleton for eventual collection by the museum.

The male wasn't in great body condition and hadn't recently fed. We found some marine debris in the first stomach, and whist obviously not helping, this thankfully didn't seem to have directly damaged the stomach. Attached some photos, in particular the asymmetric tooth wear. This could be due to this animal's possible feeding strategy of suction feeding smallish fish, eg mackerel or herring. We should know more about the population this is from once these photos have been cross checked with photo ID collections.

Other tests still underway, more soon..."