Comparative Anatomy and Functioning of Olfactory Tract in Selected Canidae

The sense of smell is the main sensation in wild animals necessary for hunting, and survival. A good example of such animal is grey wolf, which is able to sense the victim from a distance of up to 2 km. Domestic dogs, especially brachycephalic, because of the morphology of nasal cavity and life’s conditions lost the so high developed olfactions ability. In that work, the multidisciplinary analysis of olfactory bulb responsible for olfaction were carried out. The research of macro- and microscope analyses, and also the technique of flow cytometry were used to estimate the level of high and low activity glomeruli in olfactory bulb in investigated animals. It was observed that in grey wolf the level of active glomeruli is higher than in badger and fox and the olfactory bulb has a higher size. That observations command that olfactory bulb as a part of telencephalon has the ability to create a new synapse depending on living conditions of animal.