animals Article How Selective Breeding Has Changed the Morphology of the American Mink (Neovison vison)—A Comparative Analysis of Farm and Feral Animals Anna Mucha 1, Magdalena Zato ´n-Dobrowolska 1,* , Magdalena Moska 1, Heliodor Wierzbicki 1 , Arkadiusz Dziech 1 , Dariusz Bukaci ´nski 2 and Monika Bukaci ´nska 2 1 Department of Genetics, Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences, 51-631 Wrocław, Poland;
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[email protected]; Tel.: +48-71-320-5920 Simple Summary: Decades of selective breeding carried out on fur farms have changed the mor- phology, behavior and other features of the American mink, thereby differentiating farm and feral animals. The uniqueness of this situation is not only that we can observe how selective breeding phenotypically and genetically changes successive generations, but also that it enables a comparison of farm minks with their feral counterparts. Such a comparison may thus provide valuable infor- mation regarding differences in natural selection and selective breeding. In our study, we found significant morphological differences between farm and feral minks as well as changes in body shape: trapezoidal in feral minks and rectangular in farm minks. Such a clear differentiation between the two populations over a period of several decades highlights the intensity of selective breeding in Citation: Mucha, A.; shaping the morphology of these animals and gives an indication of the speed of phenotypic changes Zato´n-Dobrowolska, M.; Moska, M.; and the species’ plasticity.