Survival of the Less-fit: A Least Shrew (Mammalia, Soricidae, Cryptotis parvus) Survives a Separated Leg Fracture in the Wild

Woodman, Neal

doi:10.7589/2012-08-218

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…It is remarkable that these individuals survived, in spite of the apparent severity of these lesions given that animals that survived severe limb injuries have been reported only rarely in wildlife. 102 These injuries likely exerted a substantial impact on individual health. Collectively, these results suggest that rats in urban environments frequently experience non-lethal trauma and raise animal welfare concerns about trapping methodologies for rat control.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pathology of wild Norway rats in Vancouver, Canada

et al. 2019

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To achieve a contemporary understanding of the common and rare lesions that affect wild, urban Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus), we conducted a detailed pathology analysis of 672 rats from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Grossly evident lesions, such as wounds, abscesses, and neoplasms, were present in 71 of 672 rats (11%) and tended to be severe. The most common and significant lesions were infectious and inflammatory, most often affecting the respiratory tract and associated with bite wounds. We assessed a subset of rats (up to n = 406 per tissue) for the presence of microscopic lesions in a variety of organ systems. The most frequent lesions that could impact individual rat health included cardiomyopathy (128 of 406; 32%), chronic respiratory tract infections as indicated by pulmonary inducible bronchus-associated lymphoid tissue (270 of 403; 67%), tracheitis (192 of 372; 52%), and thyroid follicular hyperplasia (142 of 279; 51%). We isolated 21 bacterial species from purulent lesions in rats with bacterial infections, the most frequent of which were Escherichia coli, Enterococcus sp., and Staphylococcus aureus. Parasitic diseases in rats resulted from infection with several invasive nematodes: Capillaria hepatica in the liver (242 of 672; 36%), Eucoleus sp. in the upper gastrointestinal tract (164 of 399; 41%), and Trichosomoides crassicauda in the urinary bladder (59 of 194; 30%). Neoplastic, congenital, and degenerative lesions were rare, which likely reflects their adverse effect on survival in the urban environment. Our results establish a baseline of expected lesions in wild urban rats, which may have implications for urban rat and zoonotic pathogen ecology, as well as rat control in cities worldwide.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pathology of wild Norway rats in Vancouver, Canada

et al. 2019

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“…Studies of structural injuries include birds that break their beaks (Slevin et al, 2016 ) and carnivores that break their teeth (Van Valkenburgh & White, 2021 ). Further, animals can break any number of bones (Stephens et al, 2018 ; Woodman, 2013 ), such as by falling from trees or cliffs or via damage from predators or humans (e.g., bullets, cars, traps, snares) or human structures (e.g., cattle guards). Many such injuries are fatal in the short term (e.g., via blood loss) or in the moderate term (e.g., via starvation or increased predation risk)—and yet some organisms live far beyond their initial injuries, which then heal to varying degrees.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Performance of wild animals with “broken” traits: Movement patterns in nature of moose with leg injuries

Hendry

et al. 2022

Ecology and Evolution

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Organismal traits are presumed to be well suited for performance in the tasks required for survival, growth, and reproduction. Major injuries to such traits should therefore compromise performance and prevent success in the natural world; yet some injured animals can survive for long periods of time and contribute to future generations. We here examine 3 years of camera trap observations along a remote trail through old‐growth forest in northern British Columbia, Canada. The most common observations were of moose (2966), wolves (476), and brown bears (224). The moose overwhelmingly moved in one direction along the trail in the late fall and early winter and in the other direction in the spring. This movement was clustered/contagious, with days on which many moose traveled often being interspersed with days on which few moose traveled. On the video recordings, we identified 12 injured moose, representing 1.4% of all moose observations. Seven injuries were to the carpus, three were to the antebrachium, and two were to the tarsus—and they are hypothesized to reflect damage to ligaments, tendons, and perhaps bones. The injured moose were limping in all cases, sometimes severely; and yet they did not differ noticeably from uninjured moose in the direction, date, contagiousness, or speed of movement along the trail. We discuss the potential relevance of these findings for the action of natural selection in the evolution of organismal traits important for performance.

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