The DOI matches its Crossref record.
Forensically significant scavenging guilds in the southwest of Western Australia
Abstract
Estimation of time since death is an important factor in forensic investigations and the state of decomposition of a body is a prime basis for such estimations. The rate of decomposition is, however, affected by many environmental factors such as temperature, rainfall, and solar radiation as well as by indoor or outdoor location, covering and the type of surface the body is resting upon. Scavenging has the potential for major impact upon the rate of decomposition of a body, but there is little direct research upon its effect. The information that is available relates almost exclusively to North American and European contexts. The Australian faunal assemblage is unique in that it includes no native large predators or large detrivorous avians. This research investigates the animals that scavenge carcasses in natural outdoor settings in southern Western Australia and the factors which can affect each scavenger's activity. The research was conducted at four locations around Perth, Western Australia with different environmental conditions. Pig carcasses, acting as models for the human body, were positioned in an outdoor environment with no protection from scavengers or other environmental conditions. Twenty-four hour continuous time-lapse video capture was used to observe the pattern of visits of all animals to the carcasses. The time of day, length of feeding, material fed upon, area of feeding, and any movement of the carcass were recorded for each feeding event. Some species we…
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5.1% (4/79) of the reviewed publications did not specify their total sample size.
“5.1% (4/79) did not specify their total sample size [72,73,98,99].”
From Forensic experiments on animal scavenging: A systematic literature review on what we have and what we need (2023) · cites this paper as [72]
Seasons can greatly affect decomposition and vertebrate scavenging, e.g. due to differences in precipitation, temperature, or invertebrate colonisation rate.
“Seasons can greatly affect decomposition and vertebrate scavenging, e.g. due to differences in precipitation, temperature, or invertebrate colonisation rate [40,53,56,72,84,88].”
From Forensic experiments on animal scavenging: A systematic literature review on what we have and what we need (2023) · cites this paper as [72]
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No references could be resolved yet.
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Cited by
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Indra, L., Lösch, S., Errickson, D., & Finaughty, D. (2023) · Forensic Science International · doi:10.1016/j.forsciint.2023.111862 · Cited by 18
Metadata
- Authors
- O’Brien, R. C., Forbes, S. L., Meyer, J., & Dadour, I.
- Affiliations
- The University of Western Australia (AU)
- Ontario Tech University (CA)
- Corresponding author
- O’Brien, R. Christopher
- Venue
- Forensic Science International
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2010-05
- Volume
- 198
- Issue
- 1-3
- Pages
- 85-91
- ISSN
- 0379-0738 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2012770701
- Cited by
- 45
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 4 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 2 · 2014: 2 · 2013: 2 · 2012: 5
- FWCI
- 3.34
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Forensic Science International (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- UWA Profiles and Research Repository (UWA) (submittedVersion)
- UTS ePRESS (University of Technology Sydney) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Insect Science › Forensic Entomology and Diptera Studies
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Archeology (arts and humanities) › Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › Diptera species taxonomy and behavior
- Keywords
- scavenger guilds, carcass decomposition, postmortem interval estimation, forensic taphonomy, insectivores, omnivores, avian scavengers, Perth
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Australia, Feeding Behavior, Postmortem Changes, Seasons, Swine, Video Recording, Forensic Anthropology, Forensic Pathology
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