Abstract:
Globally, the increasing need to conduct both research and surveillance of the health of wild
animal populations has been recognized as an important tool in conservation and management.
While such studies on terrestrial wildlife are frequent in the southern African
sub-region, their counterparts in the marine environment seem to be largely lacking. Here we
report on our experience in establishing and testing a standardized necropsy protocol for
small cetaceans adapted for the local context, with the specific aim of sampling for health
investigations and monitoring. The necessity, challenge and value of regional standardization
in data collection specifically aimed at health investigations, inter-disciplinary collaboration,
long-term data banking,and sample storage are discussed in addition to practical and safety
considerations. The developed protocol, focusing on the necropsy technique and tissue
sample collection, as well as a list of required equipment are available as online supplementary
material.
