Definition/Function:
This hair belongs to the group Alces alces, or moose.
Significance in the Environment:
Characteristic Features:
Moose hair is about 200 to over 400 micrometers wide from the root to near the tip. It
has a lattice type medulla that nearly fills the hair.
The cuticle pattern is imbricate tiled and has a scale count of about 3 to 4 per 100
micrometers.
Moose 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.
