The study of structural details of hair for various purposes is called as Trichology. The hair morphology is useful for species identification as well as for study of evolution and domestication of various animal species in Zoology, Veterinary Science and Forensic sciences. Unlike biological samples such as bone pieces, blood stains, skin, and viscera. The hair, are chemically most stable component, do not under go decomposition, and structural changes even after enzymatic activity, and can not be digested. Due to these peculiar characteristics, hair can be used as biological evidence in forensic investigations in solving vetero-legal cases.

India is well known for its rich flora and fauna and is referred as one of the richest biodiversity nations of the world. The mammalian population of India is a combination of Palaearctic, Oriental and Afro-tropical fauna (Sahajpal et al. 2009). It is the home of 400 different mammalian species, 129 of these species are protected under Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972 (India) and an arbitrator to Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) (Nameer, 2015). Illegal trade of the wildlife for preparation of various products is the common issue in the conservation and is also responsible for regional extinction of the species.

Hausman (1920a) worked on the microscopic structure of hair from the commercial fur. The hair samples of 27 different species of animals were used for the study. He described in detail the structural features of guard hair. He classified medulla of hair into 4 different types as discontinuous, continuous, fragmental and interrupted on the basis of composition of medullar cells. He also classified the cuticular scale pattern into two types as imbricate interrupted and imbricate coronal. He mentioned in detail the methods for the preparation of slides for the study of microscopic structures of hair. He also studied the cortex and pigment granules.

The present study on trichology of domestic and wild animals was conducted in the Postgraduate laboratory of the Department of Veterinary Anatomy and Histol ogy, Nagpur Veterinary College, Nagpur. The study was undertaken with an aim of species differentiation from the guard hair of domestic as well as wild animals. The hair samples were collected from a total of eight domestic animal species and six wild animal species. Six animals from each species were studied and only three animals studied from the Sambar species as only three animals from this species was reported for post-mortem to the Nagpur Veterinary College, Nagpur within the period of research.

4.1. Physical characteristics 4.1.1. Colour, number of bands and hair profile The physical characteristics of hair like colour, number of bands and hair profile showed huge variations in the same individual from region to region particularly in the domestic animal species. So, these features of hair cannot be considered as an important tool for species identification from hair. These findings are in accor dance with the observations of Sarkar et al. (2011). Who mentioned that the coat of mammalian species varies with season, habitat and sex of the individuals.

The present trichological work was carried out on guard hair of eight domestic and six wild animal species to study physical, microscopic, scanning electron microscopic and molecular parameters in view to identify the species of animal from hair. The physical characteristics of hair like colour, number of bands and hair profile showed huge variations in the same individual from region to region particularly in the domestic animal species. Due to presence of metallic shine in the hair from wild herbivores, they could be distinguished grossly from that of the domestic herbivore.