The Zoological Society of London announces results of post-mortem of a northern bottlenose whale found in Thames
Wednesday 25 January 2006
The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) will be holding a press conference to announce the preliminary results of the post-mortem carried out on the northern bottlenose whale found in the Thames.
Dr Paul Jepson, Veterinary Pathologist for the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) is carrying out the post mortem of the female northern bottlenose whale found in the Thames and will have preliminary results of his examination on Wednesday 25th January. Further results from tissue analysis will be received over the coming weeks.
Initial examinations of the whale’s body were carried out yesterday at the dockside in Denton, near Gravesend, Kent and the complex process continues today in the laboratories of ZSL at Regent’s Park.
On completion, the body will be given to the Natural History Museum who will clean the bones and preserve them for scientific research.
The data from the post mortem is being collected as part of the Defra-funded UK Marine Mammal Strandings Project which is co-ordinated by ZSL and the Natural History Museum. The project is a long-term national research programme investigating the causes of mortality in UK marine mammal species along the UK coast.
The team who worked with the whale, including the veterinary and pathology team at ZSL, British Divers Marine Life Rescue and the Natural History Museum will attend and pictures will be made available to the press.
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Press Contact
Debbie Curtis - 020 7449 6363 - debbie.curits@zsl.org
