| In this paper, the winter pelage of Siberian weasel (Mustela sibirica manchurica) in Tong-river forestry region in Heilongjiang province was researched and the layered structure of its hair was observed. The infrared temperature-measuring and the measurement of thermophysical properties on pelage were used to measure the thermal properties of the samples qualitatively and quantitatively. At the same time, FLIR report1.2Software was used to analyse the infrared thermal image of the pelage surface, Excel2003Software was used to calculate the heat transfer coefficient of the pelage and SPSS17.0Software was used to analyse the significant difference of Siberian weasel’s pelage on the different body parts between the male and the female. The results are as follows:(1) Based on the infrared measuring temperature theory, we stimulated qualitatively the infrared thermal temperature measurement of the animal body temperature. With the testing platform developed by ourselves, thermal properties of Siberian weasel’s pelage were analysed quantitatively. The experimental method was scientific and feasible.(2) Siberian weasel’s pelage has the same lamination in different body parts from the surface to the inside, and the thermal insulation mechanisms of each layer are different, namely:the outermost layer is yellow or golden consisting of only the biggest part of hair shaft and hair needle of straight guard hair and lanceolate hair. It covers the whole pelage so as to stop the cold air from getting in and heat from getting out. This layer’s contribution ratio to the whole thermal insulation is16.11%. The second layer is light yellow. This layer consists of straight guard hair, lanceolate hair and villus. The hair shaft of this layer is more slender with narrow interspace between the layers. The thermal insulation is strengthened by the retention of still air. The contribution ratio to the heat preservation of this layer is27.4%. The third layer is gray or off-white, the hair shaft of the four types of pelage is more slender, and the degree of bended flocking needle and villous was higher with more space and higher ability to keep still air. Its contribution ratio to thermal insulation is44.4%. The innermost layer is white and near the hair root. The four types of hair are relatively straight and beneficial for the upper layer to transmit the heat produced by bodies. But the contribution ratio to the heat preservation is just12.09%.(3) The layered structure of yellow weasel’s pelage has difference in body parts:the outermost hair of the neck, back and hips is brownish yellow and the third layer of these is off-white; the outermost hair of the chest and abdomen is golden and the third layer is white.(4) The results of the infrared temperature measurement and thermophysical test show that the thermal insulation differed in body parts, sex and layers (P≤0.05). The thermal insulation on the breech pelage is the highest, and the back pelage is the second and the neck the last. The chest is lower than abdomen; along the vertical body axis, the thermal insulation of the back is higher than the chest and the breech is higher than the abdomen. The thermal insulation on different body parts is different. The third layer is of the highest level followed by the second, the outermost and the innermost successively and the male is better than female. Conclusion:we reached the same result by three methods which proved the feasibility of the methods and strengthened the reliability of the experimental results; the thermal insulation is a combined action of microcosmic morphology, spatial distribution and function differentiation as well as a high-level, complex and exact energy transmission system. This paper reveals the thermal insulation difference of yellow weasel’s winter pelage in layering, body parts and sex in Tong-river forest region of Heilongjiang province. These are result from animals’long-term adapting to the local ecological environment and basis for further studys on the thermal insulation of other mammals’pelage. |
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