How to Prep Slides for Animal Hair Labs

In Grave Secrets by Kathy Reichs there is a section that discusses differentiating animal hairs. When my students in Science in Fiction are reading that section, we do an activity where the students examine the hair of a number of different species of animals to see if they can identify the characteristics of those species. They must be able to identify the type of cuticle and medula of each type of animal. So, how do we get all these different slides?  I suppose you could spend a lot of money trying to find pre-made slides on-line, but I make my own. You really need to plan ahead for this activity if you are going to make your own slides. It will take some time and effort, but then they will be all ready to go every time you need them from then on.

 If you have never made your own permanent slides before, it's really easy. All you need is new or clean glass slides, your specimens, and either glass cover slips, or depending on the size of your specimens, a second glass slide per base slide, and superglue. Also, forceps and clear nail polish and paper labels for your specimens. To actually make the slides, place a hair or two from a species on the glass slide base, cover it with superglue, place coverslip or another glass slide on top. You may want to place the paper label you made in between the slides if you use the full glass slides. If you only used cover slips, you can glue the label to the side of the slide past the cover slip. Then coat it with nail polish to preserve it. The forceps are to select and place the hairs so you don't use your fingers to touch any slide that came from a questionable source. More about those sources below.

ok, so how do you get your specimens? If you're like me and live in the country, you can ask friends and family for samples from their assorted pets. That should get you a few dogs, cats, maybe a horse or some hamsters or gerbils. You really only need one or two hairs per slide you wish to make. Of course you will want a larger selection of species than a few pets. And this may sound creepy, but roadkill is your friend!  My specimens include cat, dog, mouse, horse, mole, raccoon, opossum, skunk, rabbit, fox, and chinchilla. The raccoon, opossum, rabbit and fox were all roadkill. I carry a box of ziplock sandwich bags and a pair of needle nose pliers in my car and when I see an animal I need hair from on the side of the road, I stop, take a few hairs, place them in the ziplock bag and label it. It's also helpful to have the bags so you can hold the hairs from your friends pets. I stopped at a friends house and she had chinchillas, so she ran and petted them and got me a handful of hairs. I'm set for years with those.

I'll try to come back and add a few pictures for your reference.