Backgrounds: Next to hard tissues like bones, teeth and nails, hair is stable under adverse natural conditions. Hence, hair are recovered along with other skeletal remains and sent for examination. Here the question often asked is whether the hair is of human or not? Aims: The present study is carried out to find the most reliable quantative parameter for differentiation of the human hair from the animal hair. Materials & Methods: Hair samples from various species of animal and various sites of human hairs were obtained. In the present study the diameter of shaft, diameter of medulla and the medullary index of the human and different animal hair were measured. It was found that, medullary index, which was less than 0.25 in human hair and more than 0.44 in animal hair is useful parameter to distinguish between human and animal hair.

https://brims-bidar.in/publications_brims/Dr.%20Kshirsagar's%20Publication.pdf

Comparative Study of Human and Animal Hair in Relation with Diameter and Medullary Index

India is known for its rich biodiversity, with a wide variety of wild floral and faunal species. This wildlife treasure of ours faces the threat of extinction due to rampant poaching and illegal trade. With most of the wildlife offence cases related to mammals having hair as physical evidence, it becomes imperative to use this evidence in the best possible way for wildlife crime investigation. We discuss the value of hair evidence with special reference to species characterization/identification using microscopic hair characteristics, keratin patterns, and mitochondrial DNA typing. The relevance of the techniques with respect to Indian scenario is specially taken care of and microscopic hair characteristics of one of the highly endangered species along with its keratin pattern are described. Finally, the use of mitochondrial DNA for species identification is also discussed.

Dealing wildlife offences in India: role of the hair as physical evidence.

Microscopic hair characteristics of a few bovid species listed under Schedule-I of Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972 of India

The study of mammalian hair is important in cross-species comparisons in zoological disciplines. Obvious differences have been found in the widths of cortex and medulla at the mid shaft region of the guard hairs. Other important difference includes the hair scale patterns. In this study seven hair characteristics viz., i) average number of scales across mid-shaft region, ii) average scale diameter (µ), iii) diameter of hair at mid-shaft region (µ), iv) medulla diameter (µ), v) cuticular patterns, vi) medulla patterns and vii) pigmentation were used for the development of reference key. The key is based on the guard hair samples collected from the abdominal region of the five domestic mammals viz. cattle, yak, domestic sheep, goat, and zo/zomo (yak and cattle hybrid), and five wild mammals viz., ibex, markhor, musk deer, marmot and pika. This key may be used for the identification of hairs found in the scats of carnivorous species present in snow leopard habitat in Gilgit Baltistan province of Pakistan.

/pdf/a-photographic-key-for-the-identification-of-mammalian-hairs-35l7mms9fn.pdf

A photographic key for the identification of mammalian hairs of prey species in snow leopard (Panthera uncia) habitats of Gilgit-Baltistan province of Pakistan.

Identification of mongoose (genus: Herpestes) species from hair through band pattern studies using discriminate functional analysis (DFA) and microscopic examination.

M.K. Thakar

Papers

Hair characteristics of four Indian bear species