REFINED MACRO-MICROSCOPIC TECHNIQUES OF THE GUARD HAIR IDENTIFICATION FOR TWO WILD SPECIES OF CERVIDAE FAMILY FROM THE SAURASHTRA REGION OF THE GUJARAT STATE, INDIA

Vibhuti Raval; Bhupat B. Radadia

Volume : IX, Issue : VII, July - 2020

REFINED MACRO-MICROSCOPIC TECHNIQUES OF THE GUARD HAIR IDENTIFICATION FOR TWO WILD SPECIES OF CERVIDAE FAMILY FROM THE SAURASHTRA REGION OF THE GUJARAT STATE, INDIA

Vibhuti Raval, Bhupat B. Radadia

Abstract :

The current study was carried out to identify the two different wild ungulate species of Cervidae family: Spotted deer and Sambar found to distribute though out the Saurashtra region of the Gujarat State, much common in the protected forest areas of the Gir and Girnar Wildlife Sanctuaries through their macro and microscopic features of dorsal guard hair characteristics. In these we collected control hair samples from the Sakkarbaug Zoo of Junagadh district which were further analyzed microscopically. We analyzed total thirty random guard hairs from dorsal region of the each species, thus in total sixty hairs studied under the microscope to avail authentic and the photographic evidences for further carnivore scat analysis using such references. In this study we used the recognizable qualitative and quantitative features of cuticle as well as medulla. Medullary Index (MI) found in Sambar is 0.92 � 0.01 �m followed by spotted deer 0.67 � 0.01 �m.