'Porpicide': Bottlenose dolphins killing porpoises

[n2doc]

The harbor porpoise that washed ashore last month at San Francisco's Fort Funston was clearly a victim of foul play.

It had two badly broken jawbones, fractured ribs on both sides and a broken scapula, evidence of a sadistic attack. Worst of all, the female porpoise, which had been seen twice before and identified by researchers in Monterey Bay, was lactating when she was killed, according to marine biologists.

It was a clear case of what scientists are calling "porpicide," the deliberate slaying of a harbor porpoise by a surprising and, to most people, unlikely culprit.

"We suspect that it was a bottlenose dolphin," said Bill Keener, a harbor porpoise researcher for the Bay Area chapter of the American Cetacean Society.



Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/09/16/BADK1L3JVQ.DTL

[intheflow]

1. Disturbing.

But I'm not sure I would go so far as to label it "porpicide."

"-cide" indicates killing on a mass scale. This seems more like a single murder than a growing trend.

[jberryhill]

2. Hmmmm....

Homicide - the killing of a person.

Regicide - the killing of a king.

Fratricide - the killing of a brother.

Suicide - the killing of oneself (sui in Latin)

The suffix -cide merely refers to a killing.

You may be used to the term genocide - in which "geno" is race (genus, where we get gene and generic), which is a mass killing program, but that is because of the geno- prefix, not the -cide suffix.

[intheflow]

3. I stand corrected.

:patriot: