Consider a population of snowshoe hares in Montana. Their fur color changes in response to changes in day length. During the long summer days, they have brown fur, but as the days shorten in the fall, their fur turns white in preparation for winter. Then as the days get longer in the spring, their fur turns brown again. Their fur coloration acts as camouflage from predators. As climate change brings warmer fall temperatures to Montana, colder temperatures with snowfall are coming later in the year, and there may be less snowfall overall. As a result, the hares' fur color may be mismatched to the color of their surroundings, making them more visible to predators.

Which snowshoe hares would have a reproductive advantage in this changing environment?

Question

Biology

Giuliana

16 May, 06:22

Consider a population of snowshoe hares in Montana. Their fur color changes in response to changes in day length. During the long summer days, they have brown fur, but as the days shorten in the fall, their fur turns white in preparation for winter. Then as the days get longer in the spring, their fur turns brown again. Their fur coloration acts as camouflage from predators. As climate change brings warmer fall temperatures to Montana, colder temperatures with snowfall are coming later in the year, and there may be less snowfall overall. As a result, the hares' fur color may be mismatched to the color of their surroundings, making them more visible to predators.

Which snowshoe hares would have a reproductive advantage in this changing environment?

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Answers (1)

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Aylin Leonard · Answer 1

The snowshoe hares with mutated genes for fur colour

Explanation:

As we can see in the question that change in fur colour in response to day length is a normal adaptation in the snowshoe hares. But due to climate change the less snow fall occurs and thus white fur hares will be visible to the predators. If some of the snowshoe hares have mutated genes for the fur colour in their cells then they will be prevented from the predation because this mutated gene can cause the change in fur colour in response to the change in temperature in place of change in day length and thus such hares with mutated gene will survive safely in changed climatic conditions.