Abstract

The study was carried out to recognize the domesticated species belonging to the family Bovidae by their specific macro-microscopic features of dorsal guard hair characteristics. Nowadays the domesticated animals played a vital role in the dairy industry and in providing easy prey-base for the various top predators which found to occur throughout the Gujarat area including protected and non-protected areas. In this, we collected control hair samples from the various cattle owners distributed in whole Saurashtra region of the Gujarat State in the year 2018. The total randomly picked up one hundred twenty guard hairs from a dorsal region of the four different cattle species were analyzed under microscopes to avail authenticated and the photographic evidence for the further carnivore scat analysis through this key. In this study, we used the recognizable qualitative and quantitative features of cuticle as well as medulla of the hair. Medullary Index (MI) found higher in domesticated Sheep 0.93±0.01, followed by Water Buffalo 0.9±0.02, followed by domesticated Goat 0.77±0.01, which further followed by domesticated cow 0.5±0.10 µm with lower MI. In this study we used the identifiable qualitative and quantitative features of Cuticle as well as Medulla.

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