Question

The fibres obtained from animals are made up of __________.

Answer 1

Hint: Animal fibres are natural fibres that are obtained from silk, hair, fur and feathers of animals. Because of their texture, they are used in the manufacturing sector to produce various commercial products. The consistency and quality of fibres differ between different animals. Some of the popular fibres are alpaca fibre and mohair from angora goats.

Complete answer:
Animal fibres are the most widely used natural fibres after plant fibres. They are mainly composed of proteins. The composition of a protein determines whether the texture of the fibre is coarse or soft. Some of the examples of animal fibre include wool fibre obtained from sheep, goats, llamas, rabbits, etc. Silk, feathers and hair are also a type of animal fibres.

Animal fibres are made up of proteins such as collagen, keratin and fibroin. Collagen is the most abundant protein in animal connective tissue. It is the most abundant protein present making up to \[25\% \] of the total protein content. They are a long, fibrous structure that supports most tissues and gives cells structure from the outside. Collagen is of great tensile strength and due to this, fibres rich in collagen have strong durability.

Keratin is also found in the epithelial cells of animals. They are found in the wool, nails, claws and horns of animals. Keratin is of two types- alpha and beta keratin. Keratin fibres obtained from animals are used in hair replacement therapy.

Fibroin is mainly found in silk and spider webs. It is a complex protein produced by the posterior silk gland cells of the animals. Silk is widely used to make silk fabrics, threads and many more commercial products.

Therefore the correct answer is proteins.

Note: Some of the commercially important animal fibres are silk derived from silkworms, cashmere (derived from the fur of the cashmere goat), Persian wool (derived from the fur of Karakul lambs), shearling (derived from the fur and skin of the shearling sheep) and shahtoosh (derived from the fur of the Tibetan antelope). These fibres are then woven or knitted to form beautiful animal fabric and made into soft and warm jackets, wraps, shawls, coats etc. Carpets, blankets and rugs are made from rougher fibres.