Brunner and Triggs HAIR ID review
Posted: Sat Jan 22, 2011 12:15 am
Sorry, it's a bit long, but I was asked........
Hair ID
Developed by Ecobyte Pty Ltd in association with Hans Brunner and Barbara Triggs Published by CSIRO Publishing.
Copyright Ecobyte Pty Ltd 2002. All rights reserved
Recently, there was a mention on the site of the above Hair ID program being offered for sale by CSIRO Publications. Several of the site contributors expressed interest at that time about the program and wondered if it was a worthwhile addition to our collective information.
As I mentioned at the time, I put this on my wish list of “stuff to have” and in fact received my copy of the CD last week. After a few days I think I have some pretty well formed ideas about this program.
The CD comes in a nice hard jewel case with anti-piracy serial number inside. The online database update was easily done and includes some commonly unusual animals for Australia. Camels were included in the update which I thought was a great idea. Thylacines were not represented and I assume that is a good thing for a few reasons. Primates are represented by Human (Homo sapiens) hair. Dingo’s (Canis familiaris) and foxes (Vulpes vulpes) are in the database as are feral cats (Felis catus). The Ecobytes site also offers some accessory equipment and processes that assists in better mounts which results in better identification of an unknown hair sample.
First the not so good news. Most likely, not all of us should purchase it. If your idea of finding the answers to your crypto-animal of choice doesn’t include a fair amount of desk time doing fairly fiddly things (remember year 10 science class??) or spending even more of your hard earned cash on more equipment that will tend to be expensive (microscopes, slides and mounting materials) stop reading. Let others here on the site help you out if this sounds like too much. The least expensive part of the Hair ID process is this program.
The Hair ID program appears to be aimed at the professional laboratory market, not the informal amateur naturalist market. This means you need to already have a skill set in place (or be willing to learn them) to “do” several of the required steps for some techniques.
The photomicrography (pictures through the microscope) contained in the database at times seem to be wanting, but to the author’s and developer’s credit, the hair structures I have looked at are illustrated well enough to identify.
Now, the good news. Identification through hair comparisons is a robust, mature and well documented method. We as a group countrywide collect a lot of hair! The identification of this collected hair can become frustrating and expensive. If we are lucky enough to have a friend in the business, it can try friendships also…lol. Granted, it also tends to be a bit subjective if the comparison catalog is thin or not available. That means for us who look for animals that don’t exist, the closest we can get is sometimes a general species if we are lucky. In order to positively say the hair you have is from a particular animal someone, someplace will have to have previously identified and classified the animal (I hope that makes sense). This program and a good microscope with a camera can relieve most if not all of the above challenges.
Support for the program, specialized tutorials and equipment are available at the Ecobyte site.
I would recommend people willing to make the effort to learn a new skill and be willing to spend more money and time doing the crazy thing we do; before you purchase a lot more expensive toys, find a friend on this site and take some time to use the program and the equipment before you buy. If after a bit of lens time you think it will help, get this program!! It is a robust tool for the Australian indigenous and not so indigenous animals which in my experience typically don’t appear in other programs of this type.
If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. I can think offhand of at least two others on this forum who have experience with this software.
Please excuse me now; I need to go order yet another microscope ……
(All opinions contained in this post are subject to change without notice. I'm still trying to figure out the questions to ask !!
)
Cheers
Nopolys
Hair ID
Developed by Ecobyte Pty Ltd in association with Hans Brunner and Barbara Triggs Published by CSIRO Publishing.
Copyright Ecobyte Pty Ltd 2002. All rights reserved
Recently, there was a mention on the site of the above Hair ID program being offered for sale by CSIRO Publications. Several of the site contributors expressed interest at that time about the program and wondered if it was a worthwhile addition to our collective information.
As I mentioned at the time, I put this on my wish list of “stuff to have” and in fact received my copy of the CD last week. After a few days I think I have some pretty well formed ideas about this program.
The CD comes in a nice hard jewel case with anti-piracy serial number inside. The online database update was easily done and includes some commonly unusual animals for Australia. Camels were included in the update which I thought was a great idea. Thylacines were not represented and I assume that is a good thing for a few reasons. Primates are represented by Human (Homo sapiens) hair. Dingo’s (Canis familiaris) and foxes (Vulpes vulpes) are in the database as are feral cats (Felis catus). The Ecobytes site also offers some accessory equipment and processes that assists in better mounts which results in better identification of an unknown hair sample.
First the not so good news. Most likely, not all of us should purchase it. If your idea of finding the answers to your crypto-animal of choice doesn’t include a fair amount of desk time doing fairly fiddly things (remember year 10 science class??) or spending even more of your hard earned cash on more equipment that will tend to be expensive (microscopes, slides and mounting materials) stop reading. Let others here on the site help you out if this sounds like too much. The least expensive part of the Hair ID process is this program.
The Hair ID program appears to be aimed at the professional laboratory market, not the informal amateur naturalist market. This means you need to already have a skill set in place (or be willing to learn them) to “do” several of the required steps for some techniques.
The photomicrography (pictures through the microscope) contained in the database at times seem to be wanting, but to the author’s and developer’s credit, the hair structures I have looked at are illustrated well enough to identify.
Now, the good news. Identification through hair comparisons is a robust, mature and well documented method. We as a group countrywide collect a lot of hair! The identification of this collected hair can become frustrating and expensive. If we are lucky enough to have a friend in the business, it can try friendships also…lol. Granted, it also tends to be a bit subjective if the comparison catalog is thin or not available. That means for us who look for animals that don’t exist, the closest we can get is sometimes a general species if we are lucky. In order to positively say the hair you have is from a particular animal someone, someplace will have to have previously identified and classified the animal (I hope that makes sense). This program and a good microscope with a camera can relieve most if not all of the above challenges.
Support for the program, specialized tutorials and equipment are available at the Ecobyte site.
I would recommend people willing to make the effort to learn a new skill and be willing to spend more money and time doing the crazy thing we do; before you purchase a lot more expensive toys, find a friend on this site and take some time to use the program and the equipment before you buy. If after a bit of lens time you think it will help, get this program!! It is a robust tool for the Australian indigenous and not so indigenous animals which in my experience typically don’t appear in other programs of this type.
If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. I can think offhand of at least two others on this forum who have experience with this software.
Please excuse me now; I need to go order yet another microscope ……
(All opinions contained in this post are subject to change without notice. I'm still trying to figure out the questions to ask !!
)Cheers
Nopolys