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Quantitative assessments of health indices are essential for effective monitoring yet they remain a challenge for cetaceans due to their highly mobile and largely cryptic nature. Quantified assessments of cetacean health typically rely on evaluating body condition, which reflects energetic reserves and nutritional status. However, this method may not capture sub\u2010lethal impacts or comorbidities resulting from chronic or cumulative stressors. Necropsies of stranded individuals provide unique insight into the morbidity of an individual and offer clues about the pressures an individual has faced over its lifetime, making necropsy reports a valuable source for understanding health. However, the predominantly qualitative and narrative format of necropsy reports limits their utility for systematic statistical analysis, thereby constraining their application in generating robust, population\u2010level inferences. Using 349 necropsy records of harbour porpoises (<jats:styled-content style=\"fixed-case\"><jats:italic>Phocoena phocoena<\/jats:italic><\/jats:styled-content> ) stranded on the Scottish coastline as a case study, we developed a structured pathology database suitable for statistical analysis. The application of unsupervised and supervised machine learning techniques has revealed underlying patterns in harbour porpoise pathology. This has shown that necropsy data may provide a more comprehensive insight into health than traditional methods. We identified the respiratory and hepatic systems as explaining a high degree of variation in the data. This highlights these organ systems as priority areas for data collection and subsequent analysis. Patterns in the data revealed underlying compromised health, particularly in adult harbour porpoises, suggesting a vulnerability to additional stressors in this group. Our approach demonstrates how pathology data from necropsy reports can be used to derive population\u2010level health insights, offering a tool for monitoring the impacts of environmental and anthropogenic pressures on wildlife populations.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1002\/ece3.72119","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,11]],"date-time":"2025-09-11T00:43:42Z","timestamp":1757551422000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1002\/crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":8,"title":["The Dead Do Tell Tales: Using Pathology Data From Cetacean Necropsy Reports to Gain Insights Into Animal Health"],"prefix":"10.1002","volume":"15","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3511-6487","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Rachel L.","family":"Lennon","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Biodiversity, One Health and Veterinary Medicine University of Glasgow, University Avenue  Glasgow UK"},{"name":"Centre for Ecology and Conservation University of Exeter  Penryn, Cornwall UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jennifer","family":"Storm","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Biodiversity, One Health and Veterinary Medicine University of Glasgow, University Avenue  Glasgow UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Rylyn","family":"Koger","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Biodiversity, One Health and Veterinary Medicine University of Glasgow, University Avenue  Glasgow UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Elleigh","family":"Thompson","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Biodiversity, One Health and Veterinary Medicine University of Glasgow, University Avenue  Glasgow UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Rosie S.","family":"Williams","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Zoological Society of London Institute of Zoology  London UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mark P.","family":"Dagleish","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Biodiversity, One Health and Veterinary Medicine University of Glasgow, University Avenue  Glasgow UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Simon A.","family":"Babayan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Biodiversity, One Health and Veterinary Medicine University of Glasgow, University Avenue  Glasgow UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mariel T. 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