Somatic changes due to captivity in carnivores/canids?

Animals kept in the captivity provide an option for morphological comparisons which are in the wild hardly feasible. Over the years, however, a many authors have detected the morphological differences between wild individuals and individuals from captivity, mostly based on the metric comparisons (eg. O'Regan, 2001, 2003; Wolfgramm, 2012; Heráň, 1986 and others), probably caused to some extent by specific confitions in the captivity. These differences were detected for example in Equidae (Groves, 1966), Rhinocerotidae (Groves, 1985) and Felidae, research made on Felidae outnumber research made on Canidae (eg. Kitchener & O'Regan, 2005). This work is focused on osteometric comparion of non-domestic members of the family Canidae, specifically on individuals bred in captivity in confrontation with the literature which providing records from wild individuals. Data were compared in several ways, statistically by t-test. The results show that zoo animals and wild-individuals differ in many aspects but surprisingly in favor of the zoo animals. Obtained results should be further using higher number of captive and wild individuals