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Research article2019Peer reviewed

Rate of Cooling in a Moose (Alces alces) Carcass

Evans, Alina L.; Fuchs, Boris; Graesli, Anne Randi; Neumann, Wiebke; Stenbacka, Fredrik; Singh, Navinder; Ericsson, Goran; Malmsten, Jonas; Arnemo, Jon M.

Abstract

Postmortem body temperature is used to estimate time of death in humans, but the available models are not validated for most nonhuman species. Here, we report that cooling in an adult female moose (Alces alces) equipped with a rumen temperature monitor was extremely slow, with a rumen temperature of 27-28 C as late as 40 h postmortem.

Published in

Journal of Wildlife Diseases
2019, Volume: 55, number: 3, pages: 710-712