Definition/Function:
This hair belongs to the group Neovison vison, American Mink.
Significance in the Environment:
This is a common fur used in coats, wraps, and as trim on clothing. Its presence in an
indoor environment is generally indicative of clothing
rather than the presence of the animal.
Characteristic Features:
Mink hair is around 10 to 20 micrometers wide from the root to a half of the length of
the hair. It then expands to about 100 micrometers before
tapering to the tip. The medulla begins as a uniserial ladder and then becomes a lattice
filling most of the volume of the hair as it expands.
The cuticle pattern is coronal dentate for the first half of the hair from the root and
then becomes imbricate extreme crenate for the thicker
part of the hair. The scale count is just over 3 per 100 micrometers in the dentate
region and 16 to 20 in the crenate region. Mink hair has
a refractive index along its length of about 1.56 and perpendicular to its length of
about 1.55.
It has a birefringence of about 0.01 and a positive sign of elongation.
Associated Particles:
References:
References with Photographs and/or Drawings
Hausman, Leon Augustus, "Structural charactreistics of the hair of mammals", THE
AMERICAN NATURALIST, vol. 54, no. 635, pp.496-523,
Hausman, Leon Augustus, "Recent studies of hair structure relationships", THE SCIENTIFIC
MONTHLY, pp. 258-277,
Glaister, John, A STUDY OF HAIRS AND WOOLS, Misr Press, Cairo, 1931.
FBI site for Animal Hair Identification:
http://www.fbi.gov/hq/lab/fsc/backissu/july2004/research/2004_03_research02.htm
Keys Only
Mayer, William V., "The hair of California mammals with keys to the dorsal guard hairs
of California mammals", THE AMERICAN MIDLAND NATURALIST,
vol. 48, no. 2, pp. 480-512, 1952.
Stains, Howard J., "Field key to guard hair of middle western furbearers", JOURNAL OF
WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT, vol. 22, no.1, pp. 95-97, January, 1958.
Mathiak, Harold A., "A key to hairs of the mammals of southern Michigan", JOURNAL OF
WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT, vol. 2, no. 4, pp. 251-268, October, 1938.
