Morphological study on hairs from mammalian predators in Bulgaria

Abstract

Abstract. The morphological characteristics of the hairs can be used for species identification in ecological and zoological studies, in forensic and forensic veterinary examinations. Large-scale hairs model is one of the important identification features and can be used as a “fingerprint”. In this study the morphological hairs characteristics of nine Bulgarian carnivore mammals were investigated. The values for the length, total hairs diameter, medullary diameter and medullary index were determined. The combined use of hairs parameters and the medullary index (MI) are a guarantee of greater reliability in species identification. For comparison, we observed under a microscope hairs fixed by transparent tape in order to offer a quick test for species identification.

Keywords

• brown bear
• canis aureus
• vulpes vulpes
• meles meles
• hairs