Starvation or Malnutrition

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What causes starvation-malnutrition?

Starvation or malnutrition occurs when an animal is not able to get the amount of nutrients from food that it needs.

There may not be enough food available, or the animal may not be able to reach or get nutrients from food because of environmental factors (deep snow or a hard crust) or physical problems (injury, disease, parasites, poor teeth).

Bone marrow of healthy (left) to starving (right) animals. Photo credit: G. Wobeser, University of Saskatchewan / Canadian Cooperative Wildlife Health Centre.

Where does starvation-malnutrition occur?

Starvation and malnutrition can affect any wildlife species and usually affects young, old, weak, or sick animals.

It usually occurs in winter.

What are the signs of starvation-malnutrition?

Animals may be weak with not much body fat.

The skin may appear loose with a dull, rough hair coat.

Animals may have humped or sagging backs, sunken eyes, and small tucked up bellies.

The bones of the shoulders, ribs, back and hind end may stick out.

When butchering, you may notice a lack of fat under the skin, around the heart, kidneys and other organs, and in the bone marrow (eg. thigh bone).

The marrow of a starving animal may be a red or yellow, jelly-like liquid. Bone marrow from a healthy animal is usually solid, white and waxy.

Muscles and organs such as the liver may have shrivelled.

The intestines and stomach may not contain much food, or may be full of dry, poor quality food.

Can I eat the meat?

Meat from affected animals is suitable for human consumption.

Starvation and malnutrition may decrease the quality of the meat.

Samples to collect

Femur (thigh bone)

The easiest way to tell if an animal has died of starvation is to measure the amount of fat in the marrow of the femur.