Morphometrical and biochemical-genetic comparisons were performed between wild IMustela vison energúmenos Bangs, 1896) and ranch mink (Dark Standard strain) to investigate intraspecific differences and to characterize effects of the domestication in this species. All animals were kept under similar conditions in larger open air enclosures prior to dissection to keep modificatory influences on the measures low and comparable. In the morphometrical part of this study weights of the total body, brain, eyes, thoracal viscera, heart, abdominal viscera, liver, spleen, kidneys, adrenals, and pancreas of 82 (39 males, 43 females) wild and 97 (50 males, 47 females) ranch mink were compared using the allometrical method with the net carcas weight as the reference parameter. Only three organs were significantly smaller in size in the ranch mink group: brain, heart, and spleen. Size decreases may result from reductions of central nervous and circulatory functions in the domesticated organism. They were compared with results in other species and evaluated as a genetically linked intraspecific adaptation to the special ecological demands of domestication. Twenty five proteins encoded by products of 44 genetic loci were compared electrophoretically between 7 wild and 7 ranch mink. Except for one esterase isozyme locus all genes examined were monomorphic. The protein heterozygosity was rather low in both groups. These results were discussed in connection with certain bottleneck situations, with investigations in other species, and with the short domestication time of ranch mink.
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