Coevolution
1. Camouflage |
2. Plant/Herbivore |
The snowshoe hare uses camouflage to evade predators such as the coyote, lynx, and fox. Their snow-white coats allow them to blend in the snow during the winter. When the snow melts in the spring and summer, the snowshoe hare’s fur turns back to brown, which resembles the ground and rocks. Despite their changes in fur color, the tips of their ears stay black. It takes approximately ten weeks for their fur color to completely change.
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In the taiga, caribou feed on lichen as their main diet during the winter season. They are one of the few animals that are capable of digesting lichen, due to its acidic content and difficulty to ingest compared to other plants. The caribou’s four-chambered stomach allows it to effectively digest the lichen, making the most out of its high carbohydrate value. On average caribou eat three kilograms of lichen daily. Caribou are able to smell the lichen and dig through the snow to obtain them, creating craters.
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