What’s in a database? Insights from a retrospective review of penguin necropsy records in Aotearoa New Zealand

Stefan Saverimuttu; Stuart Hunter; Brett Gartrell; Kate McInnes; Kristin Warren; An Pas; James Chatterton; Lian Yeap; Bethany Jackson

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0321975

Back

What’s in a database? Insights from a retrospective review of penguin necropsy records in Aotearoa New Zealand

Journal article

Open access

Peer reviewed

What’s in a database? Insights from a retrospective review of penguin necropsy records in Aotearoa New Zealand

Stefan Saverimuttu, Stuart Hunter, Brett Gartrell, Kate McInnes, Kristin Warren, An Pas, James Chatterton, Lian Yeap and Bethany Jackson

PloS one, Vol.20(4), e0321975

2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0321975

Files and links (1)

pdf

Published1.36 MBDownload View

CC BY V4.0, Open Access

Abstract

Wildlife necropsy databases often provide data for morbidity and mortality studies of free-ranging species, with implicit relevance for conservation goals, as well as domestic animal and human health. Retrospective reviews are a common way to derive insights from such opportunistic data, despite the methodological difficulties of performing these analyses, alongside findings being prone to bias. This study reviews morbidity and mortality data from Sphenisciformes of Aotearoa New Zealand, using records extracted and manually refined from submissions to the national Wildbase Pathology Register. The review corroborates the broader consensus that hoiho (yellow eyed penguin, Megadyptes antipodes) are most commonly diagnosed with infectious/inflammatory disease (43.1%, 422/978 diagnoses), kororā (blue penguin, Eudyptula minor) with traumatic injuries (42.9%, 156/364 diagnoses), and emaciation being a common finding across both species (33.9%, 393/1463 diagnoses). Further, there are marked spatiotemporal trends in submissions, driven primarily by the affected species and the submitting organisations, highlighting the biases within such databases that must be factored into the application of results. Typographical errors, redundancies from synonymous terms, and missing data are captured as barriers to performing manual reviews of free-text data. Overall, this study highlights strengths and limitations of storage and review of wildlife necropsy data while providing insight into threats faced by the penguins of Aotearoa.

Details

Title: What’s in a database? Insights from a retrospective review of penguin necropsy records in Aotearoa New Zealand
Authors/Creators: Stefan Saverimuttu
Stuart Hunter
Brett Gartrell
Kate McInnes
Kristin Warren - Murdoch University, Centre for Terrestrial Ecosystem Science and Sustainability
An Pas
James Chatterton
Lian Yeap - Murdoch University, Centre for Terrestrial Ecosystem Science and Sustainability
Bethany Jackson - Murdoch University, Centre for Biosecurity and One Health
Publication Details: PloS one, Vol.20(4), e0321975
Publisher: Public Library of Science; SAN FRANCISCO
Number of pages: 18
Identifiers: 991005774133507891
Copyright: © 2025 Saverimuttu et al.
Murdoch Affiliation: Centre for Biosecurity and One Health; Centre for Terrestrial Ecosystem Science and Sustainability; School of Veterinary Medicine
Resource Type: Journal article

UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This output has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

Source: InCites

Metrics

123 File views/ downloads

32 Record Views

InCites Highlights

These are selected metrics from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool, related to this output

Collaboration types: Domestic collaboration; International collaboration
Citation topics: 1 Clinical & Life Sciences; 1.248 Sexually Transmitted Infections; 1.248.2104 Trichomonas Vaginalis
Web Of Science research areas: Veterinary Sciences
ESI research areas: Plant & Animal Science