Journal de médecine légale

Selective Behavior of Rodents When Feeding On A Corpse: A Case Report

Abstract

Department of Forensic Medicine and Criminalistics, School of Medicine University of Rijeka BraÄ?e Branchetta, Rijeka, croatia

Post-mortem animal activity is an important factor to consider when investigating the death of outdoor corpses. Many predatory and scavenger
animals can attack human bodies and expose them to complete destruction, and the dead person's bones and possessions can be
spread around a large area because of animal involvement. This fact complicates the investigation both during the scene inspection and at the
autopsy. In this case report, we present a rare phenomenon in which during an animal attack on a human corpse all of the internal thoracic
organs were eaten except for one lung affected by lobar pneumonia. We report about rats that found refuge in the body of the deceased during
the relatively cold spring period, which acted as their hiding place in addition to the source of food. Such selective activity by rats has left
us a section of one organ in which we have found a major pathological finding, which may have had something to do with the cause of
death.