Heart of a Wolverine

Photo: David Moskowitz, Cascades Wolverine Project

On a dark day in January, I took a ferry to Seattle to participate in the necropsy of a wolverine, whose body was being held at the Burke Museum. A necropsy is an autopsy for a nonhuman animal; even in probing death, we set ourselves apart. Here is how Cornell’s Wildlife Health Lab distinguishes the two terms:

The word “autopsy” comes from the roots autos (“self”) and opsis (a sight, or seeing with one’s own eyes)—so an autopsy is the examination of a body after death by someone of like species—another human.

So what do you call the post-mortem examination of an animal? The appropriate term is “necropsy,” derived from necro (“death”) and the aforementioned opsis.