Question

L. Scott Mills and his colleagues examined the seasonal coat color change in snowshoe hares. Snowshoe hares are typically brown in the summer and white in the winter. They argue that a mismatch between coat color and the environment can be a big problem for these important prey animals. Answer each question in 2-6 sentences (not only “Yes” or “No” - provide examples/arguments supporting your response). Always write in your own words

1. Will snowshoe hares be able to alter their seasonal coat color change if the climate changes? What drives local adaptations? Speculate about two alternative trajectories.

Answer 1

Ans-1 Yes snowshoe hares will be able to alter their seasonal coat colour change if the climate changes, but it is not always necessary for them to change colour. This is coat colour change in snowshoe hares is due to pigmentation provided by Agouti gene as it is responsible for the colour change. But to change colour is not always the situation. Sometimes , it also happens that some hares during less snowy winters donot change their colour and this ability arises due to the fact that some genes are borrowed from a black jack rabbit and hence the hares tend to remain brown during initial winters. In most of the cases they are able to change colour, but sometimes they don't as well. The phenomenon that drives local adaptations is genetic exchange. For survival and accomodation for certain species, genetic exchange is necessary on local levels to ensure lineage of species. For example - if some of the hares are not changing their colour exactly to white in winters should always have some survival techniques among other hares that are having white coat colour in winters. So it could be a kind of gene survival technique for them via exchange.

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