CRANIOMETRICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF WOLVES CANIS-LUPUS FROM POLAND

Skulls of 145 adult wolves Canis lupus Linnaeus, 1758 from two areas o f the highest wolf density in Poland (78 from the Carpathian Mountains and 71 from the Bialowieza Primeval Forest) were measured using 17 se lected characters. Values of cranial characters measured were similar to those of previous studies from middleastern Eurasia. Generally, wol f skulls were larger in the mountain than in the lowland population: m ales from the Carpathian Mountains were larger than that from the Bial owieza Forest, however females were slightly smaller than that in the Bialowieza Forest. On both areas males were larger than females, but a difference between sexes was much highly pronounced in wolves from th e mountain population.