ULTRA-STRUCTURAL STUDIES OF HAIRS OF SEVENTEEN SPECIES OF CARNIVORES MAMMALS USING SCANNING ELECTRON MICROGRAPHS

The illegal trade in skin of a number of Wild animals exists in India despite the introduction of Wild Life (Protection) Act. 'It is becoming difficult for the scientists and large enforcement 'agencies such as wildlife department, customs, etc., to punish the offenders. It is often difficult to identify the material based on the morphological characteristics. This study attempts to provide the surface ultra-structure of dorsal guard hairs of 17 species of carnivores mammals using Electron Micrographs.


INTRODUCTION
The illegal trade in skin of a number of Wild animals exists in India despite the introduction of Wild Life (Protection) Act. 'It is becoming difficult for the scientists and large enforcement 'agencies such as wildlife department, customs, etc., to punish the offenders. It is often difficult to identify the material based on the morphological characteristics. This study attempts to provide the surface ultra-structure of dorsal guard hairs of 17 species of carnivores mammals using Electron Micrographs.
The study on hairs dates back to eighteenth century. In recent years, hair study has become ODe of tbe outstanding disciplines in science due to its manifold implications such as identification of prey species from the gut contents and scats of large predator-species.
Scanty information is available regarding ultra-structural details using SEM on mammalian hairs (Day, 1966;Short, 1978;Homan &Genoways, 1978 andDe, 1993). Therefore, the present study is made on 17 species of carnivores under six families enlisted in CITES and Schedule I & Part II of Schedule II of Indian Wild Life (Protection) .Act, 1972.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
Five to six dorsal guard hairs from 17 carnivore's species of mammals were collected with the help of a fine scissor and a fine forcep from the identified National Zoological Collections of the Zoological Survey of India, Calcutta. . Collected samples were washed and cleaned with different dilutions of acetone, and air dried. The samples were coated with carbon and gold in a vacuum evaporator JBE-4X, and scanned using Jeol JSM-840A.

RESULTS
The surface structure of hairs of each species shows cuticular scale~, with variable inter-scalar portion and diameter ( Table I) Herpestes edwardsi and Herpestes smithi possess hairs having narrow scale and smooth margins (Figs. 15 to 18), whereas hairs of Herpestes auropunctatus and Herpestes urva contain irregular petal-shaped scales (Figs. 13,14 & 19,20). Short wide scales with crenated edges are observed on the hairs of Melogale personata (Figs. 11 & 12). Flattened cuticular scales with flattened margin is found on the hair of Arctonyx collaris (Fig. 9), whereas hair of Mellivoro capensis possess broad cuticular scales, with heavily crenated margins (Fig. 10). Regularly arranged cortical scales with crenated malgins are found on the hair of Ailurus fulgens (Figs. 6 to 8).

DISCUSSION
From the scale pattern of different carnivores, it is observed that flattened scales with slightly crenated margins occur in the family Canidae and mosaic pattern occur in three species and thickly al ranged scales with flattened edges in two species of the family Felidae.
One species of Viverridae has short wide scales, with highly crenated margin, other two species contain narrow scales with smooth margins and another two species contain irregular petal form of cortical scales.
Crenated margined cuticular scales are found in two species of Mustelidae and flattened cuticular scales with flattened margin in another one species. Hairs of one species of Procyonidae has regularly arranged cortical scales with crenated margin.
In the present study it is found that diameter of hair shaft is not specific and it varies from root up to the tip, as observed by Short (1978).

Records of the ZODlogical Survey of India
The width of inter-scalar portion may have some significance in identifying different mammalian species, if it is considered with other parameters viz., length, width, cross.
sectional appearance, and pigment patterns, etc. (Short, 1978, Homan & Genoways, 1978. More and more studies are required to establish a concrete differences between species. CONCLUSION So far, identification of hairs is done based on the cuticular and medullary patterns by making cross-section. Till to-day, no laboratory has established a method for their identification by any other means. In view of the above situation, the present study wat conducted. A large number of endangered and vulnerable animal species are poached regularly for trade for products obtained from them. Identification of animal species based on morphological characteristics is possible only if the large body parts are available. Therefore, it is important to develop a technique which could enable t~e identification of species from the hair. The present study is aimed at serving the need to' some extent. SUMMARY Scanning Electron Microscopic (SEM) observations were made on the dorsal guard hairs of 17 species of mammals belonging to schedule I and part II of schedule IT of the Wild life (Protection) Act. Results show that the micrographs of six families of carnivores differ in their morphology and inter-scalar portion. The present study is aimed ~t providing an atlas of the ultra-structure of hairs using SEM. It is apparent that the micrographs of hairs can provide a valuable tool to Wild Life researchers customs , department and other .groups of investigators in identification of the animal species. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT We thank Dr. A. K. Ghosh, Director, Zoological Survey of India for the facilities provided. We also thank Dr. S. Chakraborty t Scientist 'SE', for the encouragement.