Aspecte craniometrice ale șacalului auriu (Canis aureus Linnaeus 1758) din sud-estul României

Abstract

The study on the craniometry of golden jackal (Canis aureus, Linnaeus 1758) is justified in the context of the latest rapid growth of this predator effectives in Romania. The growth is the effect of the return to the initial area, but the current demographic increase also leads to an expansion of the area. The study highlights the results of biometric measurements and analyzes of the variability of the craniometric characteristics of the golden jackal. The statistical investigations show a low variability of all the measured cranial features thus proving the homogeneity of the sample extracted from the population. Between most of the elements analyzed there are very significant correlations, indicating a symmetrical, well-proportioned architecture of the skull. Furthermore, the comparison of the means of two sets of craniometric measurements, by sex, showed no significant statistical differences between the dimensional features of the golden jackal skulls from Southeastern Romania and those in Bulgaria.