Wild Mammal Mortality Causes in Southern Germany, 2019–2023

M. Nowak's dataset contains 2,118 complete necropsy reports from public veterinary authorities in southern Germany between 2019 and 2023. It categorizes mortality by species, age, sex, season, and cause of death using the WHO ICD-11 classification system. The analysis highlights infectious diseases and trauma as leading causes, with a focus on species like European hare, red fox, roe deer, and wild boar.

Use Cases

• Identify regional clustering of infectious diseases like tularemia and canine distemper based on species and location data.
• Analyze seasonal mortality patterns, particularly the spring peak, based on temporal and demographic variables.
• Assess the impact of anthropogenic factors like road traffic collisions based on trauma cause-of-death classification.
• Benchmark wildlife mortality causes using the standardized WHO ICD-11 system for international comparison.

Strengths

• Contains 2,118 complete necropsy reports, providing a substantial sample for analysis.
• Covers a 5-year time range (2019–2023) from all public veterinary investigation authorities in southern Germany.
• Uses the standardized WHO ICD-11 classification system for cause of death, enabling structured reporting.

Limitations

• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Data is limited to southern Germany and may not be generalizable to other regions.

Provenance

Source

Public veterinary investigation authorities in southern Germany.

Collection Method

Retrospective analysis of submitted necropsy reports.

Time Range

2019–2023

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-21 05:34:14; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Southern Germany