Studies on Dielectric Properties of Animal Horns

Horns are pointed projections on the heads of various animals. These are primarily made up of keratin and other proteins like elastin surrounding the bone. Horns from different animals like antlers, goat, buffalo, cow etcusually are found to possess a curved or spiral shape, often found with ridges. In many species only males have horns. In most of the animal species, horns grow soon after the birth and usually continue throughout the life of the animal. In this article, the authors have made an attempt to study and compare the dielectric parameters such as dielectric constant, dielectric loss and conductivity of horns of buffalo and cow at varying frequencies in the range of 20 Hz-2 MHz. A high precision digital LCR meter was used to measure the capacitance and dissipation factor. A significant variation in dielectric parameters was observed with respect to the type of animal selected.