Until this week Florida had had, in the last 58 years, only 17 cases of an alligator killing a person.

So said a state official, interviewed about the three such cases in the last week. He said that they are killing all alligators captured in the area (relocating them merely relocates the problem) and performing a necropsy on each.

Can any of our medical members advise of any difference between necropsy and autopsy?

Looking at various online dictioanries suggest that autopsy and necropsy are mere synonyms, as is post-mortem, but one suggestion was that necropsies are performed on animals, while autopsies are on humans.

I don't know for sure. I could have sworn there was a difference, but my Taber's merely defines it as autopsy.