The study was performed on corpses of adult: 40 domestic shorthair cats (Felis silvestris f. catus), 50 American minks (Neovison vison) and 23 bank voles (Myodes glareolus) of both sexes and different age. The study material underwent an anatomical preparation and morphometric analysis of the hearts was performed. None of the hearts carried signs of macroscopic abnormalties or pathological changes. The following elements were determined: the body weight (BW), the heart weight (HW), the heart height (H) and the heart width (W). The data thus obtained were used to determined the percentage of the HW compared to the BW. The difference between the population of males and females for each of the parameters was determined by the Fisher’s LSD test (for cats and minks) and the U-Mann-Whitney test (for bank voles) and the significance level was P≤0.05. In the studied material the W of all specimens was greater than the H. The average HW amounted to: 19.08 g in domestic shorthair cat; 13.05 g in American mink; 0.13 g in bank vole. The average I1 amounted to: 0.59% in domestic shorthair cat; 0.66% in American mink; 0.70% in bank vole.

25-32