SOME MORPHOLOGICAL TRAITS OF THE TARSUS FORK-NOSE DOG IN TURKEY

Abstract

This research is the first to document the morphology of the Tarsus Fork-nose Dog in Turkey. The purpose was to determine the morphological traits of this dog in different age and sex groups as raised in the South of Turkey. To this end, 24 male and 31 female Fork-nose were measured. Descriptive statistics gave the following means: live weight (LW) was 21.7 kg, withers height (WH) 48.5 cm, height at rump (HR) 48.5 cm, body length (BL) 49.1 cm, heart girth circumference (HGC) 64.0 cm, chest depth (CD) 20.8 cm, chest width (CW) 18.8 cm, cannon circumference (CC) 10.5 cm, and head length (HL) 20.7 cm respectively. Also the distributions of body coat color of the sampled Fork-nose were 52.7% brown, 23.6% brown-white, 14.6% black-white and 9.1% black. The Tarsus Forknose Dog is the only hunting dog in Turkey, and they it reaches its mature body size at two years of age.