南瓶鼻海豚(Tursiops aduncus)是我国二级重点保护的水生哺乳动物,属于鲸目(Cetacea),海豚科(Delphinidae),瓶鼻海豚属(Tursiops)(MollerandBeheregaray,2001;WellsandScott,2002)。南瓶鼻海豚是人工主要饲养的鲸类品种之一(刘仁俊等,2002;Zhangeta1.,2012)。2011年4月30日,厦门市小嶝岛休闲渔村从福建东山引进两头南瓶鼻海豚进行人工饲养。
On May 8th, 2013, we implemented pathological anatomy and external morphological measurements of two dead southern bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus) , which were raised in Xiaodeng Recreational Fishing Village, Xia- men, to investigate the causes of their death. These two dolphins ( Nos. 1 and 2) were males. The body lengths and weights were 242 em and 130 kg for dolphin No. 1, and 240. 7 cm and 125 kg for dolphin No. 2, respectively. Their subcutaneous abdominal fat layers were 3 mm and 5 mm thick, respectively. No fatal pathological changes were detected in viscera organs such as hearts, livers, spleens, lungs, kidneys, testis, epididymides, etc. However, we found 9. 5 kg ulva ( Ulva lactu- ca) mixed with mud in the fore-stomach of dolphin No. 1, while there were 5.5 kg plastic packaging bags, swimming caps, stones, ete, in the fore-stomach of dolphin No. 2. Therefore, the deaths of these two dolphins could be due to the fact that foreign matter choked up their fore-stomachs, making them unable to feed and digest normally for a relatively long time, thereby starving them to death.