title: Unusual injuries on the right hand and forearm caused by unidentified wild animals.
abstract: An old man was found dead in a rice paddy with his face down in the water. His right forearm and hand were severely injured and the shapes of injuries were unusual. It was initially suspected that the injuries had been caused by a cultivator placed at the site. However, they proved to be postmortem injuries because vital reactions were not observed. The skin was widely torn away. Some edges of the injuries looked like a bite mark and other parts looked like scratches. There were many parallel injuries on the right forearm and hand and footmark-like injuries on the right hand. They were probably caused by wild animals. Judging from the sizes and shapes of the footprint, bite marks and scratches, we estimated that the animal which caused the injuries was weasels.
authors.affiliation: Forensic Medicine, Hokkaido University Graduate School of Medicine, Sapporo 060-8638, Japan.
authors.forename: Takayuki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kiuchi
authors.forename: Kotaro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Matoba
authors.forename: Koichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Terazawa
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000818:Animals; D000835:Animals, Wild; D001733:Bites and Stings / Q000473:pathology*; D002423:Cause of Death; D005543:Forearm Injuries / Q000473:pathology*; D049429:Forensic Pathology; D006230:Hand Injuries / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D045969:Mustelidae; D011180:Postmortem Changes