Missing scavengers
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One of the first things we noticed was that the corpse’s hands were missing. We were called in to assist after a body was found. The insight from this research opened the door for us to take part in an active police case which resulted in the recovery of a complete body in the area. We also discovered that mongoose target smaller, more manageable elements from larger carcasses and move them under cover to eat them. But the carcass in the cage took more than 93 days. Carcasses the scavengers could access decomposed to skeletonisation within 14 days. We found that the Cape grey mongoose’s daily scavenging activity had a significant effect. Spies visited the site every second day to track the direction and distance that bony elements were moved away from each original deposition site by the scavengers. We set up motion-activated infrared camera traps to catch scavengers in the act and to see how they behaved around the carcasses. One of these was completely caged to prevent scavenging the other two were placed out in the open. To test their scavenging habits, we set up an experiment using three small pig carcasses. (Spies was supervised by myself and PhD candidate Devin Finaughty). Max Spies, an honours student, found that the Cape grey mongoose ( Galerella pulverulenta) was the major and possibly only wild vertebrate scavenger of decomposing carcasses remaining in the environment.
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The knowledge we gained from a research project by an honours student was recently applied to a live police case – to astonishing effect. But, as our work has shown, it shouldn’t be.įor example, we have gained some invaluable insights from tracking the scavenging habits of the Cape grey mongoose. That’s because the surrounding areas are so densely populated the area’s struggle with crime and poverty is also well documented.Įxisting methods of studying and measuring post-mortem interval in this vegetation have traditionally relied exclusively on the relationship between temperature and decomposition progression. Human remains are often recovered from the particular kind of vegetation that grows in and around the facility, and which is common across the Cape Flats. Our projects are conducted at the South African Medical Research Council’s secure research facility in Delft, Cape Town, within an area called the Cape Flats. This sort of cooperation between science and law enforcement can help to get accurate as well as just results. They’ve also already been applied to active forensic cases. The results have helped us to understand the role that scavenging plays in calculating post-mortem intervals. We’ve researched decomposition since 2014, conducting a number of studies that focus on scavenging and scattering in a large swathe of vegetation in the heart of Cape Town. We’ve been trying to fill this research gap at the University of Cape Town. For instance, does it change the rate or pattern of decay? But there are other animals you’d probably be surprised to find on the list: baboons, porcupines, badgers, racoons, opossums, and even deer.įor a long time we haven’t understood what effect this sort of scavenging and scattering has on the rate of decomposition. The usual suspects that come to mind when talking about scavengers are hyenas, vultures, or jackals. Sometimes, there’s another reason that bodies are difficult to identify or aren’t found in one piece: they’ve been scavenged. Post-mortem interval can also be used to exclude possible perpetrators or to corroborate evidence in investigations. First, it reduces the potential pool of individuals the remains could belong to, which increases the chances of identification. By doing this, they can establish an approximate post-mortem interval – the time that’s passed since someone died. They try to provide answers by analysing the state of decomposition and the context in which the remains were found. One important question in such cases is: when did the person die?įorensic taphonomists study what happens to human remains after death.
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When the police recover skeletonised, burnt or heavily decomposed bodies, they need forensic experts to make sense of what they’ve found.