港口海豚

Ecomare/ Salko de Wolf

海豚是属于齿鲸家族的水生哺乳动物。它们看起来与海豚相似，但可以通过鼻子的形状（海豚有喙状的鼻子）来区分，牙齿（孔孔有铲齿）和鳍（孔孔具有三角形背鳍，与钩状的钩形鳍形鳍一样海豚）。

港口海豚s are one of six porpoise species and, as you might expect from the name, live close to shorelines. They are relatively small – making them targets for seal or dolphin attacks. There are approximately 250,000 harbour porpoises in the North Sea – one of the busiest areas of water in the world. Porpoise strandings are unfortunately common.

在20结束时^Th世纪，调查表明，可能的根源可能是bycatch、支气管肺炎(细菌、寄生虫或梳子ination of both) and starvation.

Between 2003 and 2016, 131 porpoises stranded on the Dutch coast were sent to rehabilitation centres, but 61 of these could not be saved.Cornelis Van Elk及其同事对这些动物进行了尸检，以确定死亡原因，研究这些原因是否从先前的调查中发生了变化，并评估了寄生虫感染在肺炎中的作用。

他们的发现，报道兽医研究，，，，表明肺炎是13只动物中唯一死亡的原因，是21只动物中的一种。超过一半的肺炎病例与寄生虫感染相关，无论是细菌或真菌感染（13例）或自身（8例）。肺线虫Stenurus次要的，Torynurus crevolutus，halocercus sp。，and伪插曲从尸检中鉴定出来 - 以前已知会感染港口海豚的寄生虫。但是，这些寄生虫仅在少年和成年人中发现，但不在新生儿中。

该团队还发现了重要的角色曲霉孢子骨滞留中的SP感染（曲霉病），这在先前的调查中尚未描述。曲霉病很可能是由于免疫力受损而导致的，柯尼利斯及其同事将其归因于人为污染物（例如重金属和多氯化双苯基），病毒感染或营养不良。

Cornelis and his colleagues only looked at the cause of death in live-stranded animals, so their results may have been different if they had included dead-stranded animals – for instance the cases of bycatch would have been higher. They may have also spotted significant cases of faster-acting diseases, which killed off the porpoises before they reached the shoreline, but could be significant causes of strandings.

我们可以做什么？

不幸的是，孔孔和一般的鲸类动物是普遍的，并且变得越来越多。在几个国家 /地区要求公众为监测束缚而做出贡献。这自然历史博物馆are asking UK citizens to report strandings as part of a citizen science project. No matter where you are in the world, you can report any strandings to your本地链网络。不过，请注意 - 要么为生死或死亡的鲸类动物，请将救援或收集留给专家。