Report ~ The Snowshoe Hare
The Snowshoe Hare, also called the varying hare or the snowshoe rabbit is commonly found in North America spreading all over it and can its habitat can reach as far as the Arctic Ocean. As we can see in the picture of the spread of the Snowshoe Hare, they can reach Alaska which becomes extremely cold during the winter. With the scientific name Lepus americanus, Snowshoe Hares usually are found in the forests but can live in many different habitats to survive. They like to be active in the twilight, making them crepuscular and are active throughout the night. During the winter, the environment it lives in becomes an extreme environment due to two factors, climate and availability of food and during the year, two factors of predators and the need for reproduction also make the snowshoe hare live in an extreme environment.
The first adaptation is the adaptation to the climate during the winter. In the Arctic, there is little solar radiation and during the winter, there is even less. Because of the movement of the Arctic Ocean, it keeps the temperature relatively warmer than the Antarctic. The Arctic has an average temperature of -34 degrees celsius during the winter with the areas near the coast being warmer with the constant movement of the Arctic Ocean. Survival in the Arctic is very difficult because of the heavy snow that is showered upon the land during the winter in the freezing temperatures.
This is a factor of the extreme environment, one because of the freezing temperatures that organisms could easily freeze in, and additionally, the snow that falls upon the Arctic contribute greatly to decrease the amount of life that can survive in this area because the snow makes the temperature that animals have to live in much colder and make it harder for them to preserve heat to keep them warm.
The main issue in this factor of the Extreme Environment is that they are unable to maintain its body heat and may freeze to death. This means strategies to attract heat or the preserve heat is needed to survive. By growing more fur especially on the legs and feet is a good adaptation so that it can have movement in the cold. Having fat on the body is also a good way of insulating that heat in the cold.
An organism that hasn’t been adapted to the Arctic environment, would freeze to death within a few days, or even a few hours because they do not have the fur, or insulation techniques to allow it to preserve body heat so because of the loss of heat.
The Snowshoe Hare adapts to this in various ways so that it can survive in the snow and freezing temperatures. It has very large hind feet, giving it the name ‘Snowshoe’, to help it not sink in the snow as it walks and hops so that it can spend less time in the snow and be less subjected to the coldness of the snow. It also has fur on the soles of its feet so that its feet can stay warm to help it preserve heat and maintain movement to produce body heat. They are also able to spread their toes to make their feet replicate a snowshoe which makes their feet able to preserve heat just like a regular pair of snowshoes.
They also have short ears to reduce the heat loss in winter because then less heat is escaped through its ears, in addition to the layers of fat on their bodies so that it can ‘insulate’ the heat that they produce to stay warmer. Their coat of fur consists of silky and soft fur in the inner most part so that it can insulate the heat and then a medium layer of thicker fur is added on top of that and finally an outer layer of coarse and long fur to further preserve heat. The outer layer’s fur can be shed. Their coat is capable of trapping air next to the hare to create another barrier to block out the coldness, another way of insulating.
Because the Snowshoe Hare changes its coat colour in winter, to having a white coat of fur rather than the summer brown coat, it is 27% more insulating as the white coat doesn’t have the pigments that the brown coat has which means it can trap more air within the hairs to get another layer of insulation.
The adaptations of the Snowshoe Hare to the climate of the Arctic is important to promote its survival rate because it allows for the preservation and insulation of heat in a way that still allows for them to have free movement and stay safe. It makes them able to stay warm during the winter that doesn’t interrupt their daily lives.
The second adaptation is the adaptation to the availability of food. During the summer, they can feast on all the nature that it brings and they can access the plants they like to eat. They usually like to eat grass, ferns and leaves during the summer however during the winter, everything changes.
This is a factor of the extreme environment because in the winter, with the snow covering more than inches above the ground, they are unable to access the plants and grass because it’s all covered in snow. This means they have to adapt in ways that can allow them still to access the food that they need to get the nutrients they must have.
Some adaptations that would be useful during this situation would be by being able to access nutrients of plants that don’t contain that much nutrients, being able to find alternative resources for food or by being able to dig through the piles of snow to find food on the ground that used to be buried by snow. These adaptations would allow the organism to access food that is nutritional and beneficial for the development and adaptation process to the winter environment.
An unadapted organism would not be accessing the nutrients they are needing because they would be unable to find nutritious food which means they are lacking the nutrients to help the organism grow and develop. This can lead to sickness and death, and this can also be lead to by starvation because the organism was unable to find food. They can also be easy targets of predators because they have malnutrition and can not outsmart or outrun their predators.
Because there is hardly any food in the winter, Snowshoe Hares have to eat food that is on the snow surface such as woody stems, conifer needles and if forced by the environment, even tree bark will be consumed. It will also eat buds and twigs and just like the Arctic Hare, it can be forced to be carnivorous in extreme environments to steal meat from baited traps, and eat dead mice. They also have very well developed claws which helps them dig through the snow to access the food.
They have a special adaptation to be able to find valuable nutrients in low nutritional foods. Because they have two stomachs, food is primarily digested in the hindgut which is after the food has moved through the stomach. This is different to other herbivores where their food is digested in the foregut. They have gastrointestinal bacteria which is located in the cecum, in a pouch extended from the small intestine which can digest plant nutrients such as cellulose. Then they eat the soft cecal pellets that come from their anus which they consume straight from there. This contains protein that very valuable during the winter and this goes through the body a second time to access this protein.
Hares know what plant parts and which parts give them the most nutrients and energy, so they like to browse for food and only pick the foods with the most nutritional value to eat. This gives them the energy and nutrients to live on with the scarcity of food and gives them the energy to hide from predators in the winter.
Another strategy is that they eat as much food there is so that they can although eat low nutritional food, eat a large quantity of them to make up for the absent nutrients. Then they hide from the predators in the daytime. However, there is a limitation to how much food they can hold in their guts which means they are limited to the amount of food they can process which affects their food choice because if they don’t choose the highest nutritionally valued foods, they won’t be able to gain enough and therefore make them subjected to the consequences of not having enough nutrients.
To access the vegetation during the winter, they set up pathways in the forests so that they can locate food easier. They usually crafted between the feeding and resting sites. This is so they don’t have to waste energy trying to find food elsewhere and by having these pathways, they can access food in the quickest and most efficient way. They access water by melting snow in the mouths to turn into water and drink that. This is another adaptation to the waterholes they usually drink from in the summer.
These strategies and adaptations the Snowshoe Hare makes help them to be able to access food during the winter because it allows them to dig through the snow to find foods with their claws. They are also able to find other kinds of food to access the nutrients and are also able to choose which foods to eat to help them access the nutrients they are needing the most at that time. Because they can eat their cecal pellets, they are able to get the most nutrients out of something that doesn’t have that many nutrients in it. These adaptations all allow the Snowshoe Hare to survive with food in the extreme environment of the Arctic.
The third adaptation is the adaptation to the threat of predators. The Snowshoe Hare is a very important link in the food chain and ecosystem as it provides food for many animals, and predators. The main predators of the Snowshoe Hare is the Lynx which primarily feed on the Snowshoe Hare. Other predators can include bears, eagles and dogs but there are many predators to the Snowshoe Hare. In the wild, “no hare ever dies of old age” as said by James Goerz, a Snowshoe Hare researcher. 85% of mortalities are due to predators.
This is a factor for its extreme environment because the Snowshoe Hare is subjected to many kinds of predators that are dangerous for the existence of the Hare, however, many adaptations to this have allowed the Hare to escape death many times and keep the species well alive and populated.
Adaptations that are useful would be being able to camouflage from the predators with the nature because then they are unable to locate the organism. Being able to outrun your predators is also helpful because then the predator would give up or be too tired. This makes the chance of the organism’s survival much bigger as they are less targeted by the predators and won’t be captured as much.
An unadapted organism would eventually be killed by the predators for food and therefore cause threat to the existence of the organism because they can not outsmart or outrun their predators so they would be captured and killed.
The Snowshoe Hare has a variety of adaptations and strategies to escape predators, one is the use of camouflage. The Snowshoe Hare’s coat in the winter turns white and in the summer turns brown. This is because as the days get shorter from fall to winter, there is less light that can enter the hare’s eyes which makes their brains create certain chemicals that allow for this change, but the tips of the ears are always black. It turns white in the winter to blend in with the snow, and turns brown in the summer to blend in with the dirt and the rocks. This makes the Snowshoe Hare less subjected to predators because they are able to camouflage into its environment so that the predators can not find them.
Another adaptation is that their hind feet are built so that they can run fast with agility as they don’t sink into the snow which can slow them down and they are also able to whack the predators with their hind feet. They can also twist their body in the air so that they can change direction immediately as well as running in zigzag patterns so that the predators get confused and makes it harder for them to locate the hares. They are quite cheeky because they also try to jump vertically upwards to confuse the predator to misjudge the location of the hare.
They have a humped back spine so that they can have more mobility in their legs and larger hearts than normal rabbits so they can run fast and far as they have the endurance instead of having the hide and freeze frequently. They also have a reduced collarbone so they can have free-swinging leg movements and it’s skull is also much lighter as it has pitted bones.This makes it possible for the Snowshoe Hare to outrun its predators and increase its chance of survival.
They warn other Snowshoe Hares by pounding the ground with their hind feet as a signal for danger. For the younger hares, they are unable to run as fast as the older ones, so they freeze and try to blend in with the environment with their camouflaging coats. The older hares, start running away so that the predators can chase them but are unable to outrun the hares. This protects the younger hares to increase the chance of survival and the chance of keeping the population at a high level. They are also able to swim in the water to escape.
They usually are only active in low light levels which makes it harder for them to be seen. This includes dawn, dusk and the night, as well as cloudy days. They shelter under logs and bushes during the day to groom and take naps so that the predators can’t actually find them during the day. In the winter, they spend a long time packing down the snow and removing the twigs that are buried in it so that they have a ‘track’ to escape on. They will jump up and down on the snow to make sure that the runway is hard.
These adaptations help the Snowshoe Hares to survive because it allows them to choose what time of the day they are out to reduce the chance of being seen. If seen, they are able to camouflage or outrun their predators so it’s harder for them to catch the hares because of their body structure. They are also able to communicate with other hares to warn them of danger which helps the other hares to stay safe therefore lessening the chance of mortality.
The fourth adaptation is the adaptation to mortalities. Because of the constant threat of the lynx, a pattern has been created called the cyclic fluctuations when every ten years when the hare’s population increases, the lynx’s population also increases and when the hare’s population decreases, the lynx’s population decreases and after it decreases, it reproduces more to reach its peak, before dropping again. This is an example of the amount of mortalities that happen and to increase the amount of hares in the population, they have to adapt by reproducing more of them.
This is a factor of the extreme environment because the Arctic has many dangers such as predators and the scarcity of food and water. This exposes them to many threats to their individual lives and the population number as a whole. They have learnt to adapt to this by reproducing more hares to prevent extinction.
A useful adaptation is the efficiency of reproduction and producing more and more offspring. By creating more offspring, they are able to keep the population number high and prevent extinction. Also by reproducing litters of offspring at a time is more efficient than just having one offspring in one pregnancy. Also by having a long breeding period is very important as well as the gestation period being shorter can help as well.
An unadapted organism would be endangered by the threats of the Arctic and because the mortality rate would increase rapidly, and if they were not adapted to reproducing more young, the population would decrease and therefore the species would be exposed to endangerment and extinction.
The Snowshoe Hare has adapted to reproducing efficiently and effectively. One way is that females and males use polygynandry as a strategy, which is when one female has many males as mates so that the chance of conceiving offspring is much higher and therefore able to reproduce much faster. When females are ready to mate, groups of males will gather around them. This helps them adapt to the mortality rates because as hares are dying, there are also many more being born to maintain the population number.
Their gestation period lasts 36 days and when they are near parturition, the females are highly aggressive to males and very intolerant but even so, when it is past the 35th of gestation, they are able to impregnated again. This means that they have conceived a second litter before the first is born because they have twin uteri. This makes it very efficient for the reproduction process because it enables the Snowshoe Hare to reproduce much faster as they are able to have more offspring in a shorter amount of time by not needing to give birth, rest and then find another mate. This saves time which allows for more reproduction to happen.
They give birth in an area where the grass has been prepared with packed down grass. They can have litters of up to eight babies but usually is around two to four young. The usual breeding season is around mid-March all the way to August. The litters later on in the season tend to be bigger than the litters earlier on and females are able to have up to four litters a year, which vary according to the environmental conditions however they are capable of giving birth every month. With the long breeding period, this allows the females to have more time to give birth to more litters and with every litter having many offspring, this allows for more young being produced and therefore maintaining and even increasing the population.
Within a year of birth, the young is mature. The young are born with the fur already fully developed around the body, open eyed and able to move the moment they land on the Earth. However, they hide in places during the day to prevent the predators and only come out for about 10 minutes at a time so that their mothers can nurse them. The father leaves the child and does not care about them. The females care for them until around four weeks old, when they are ready to go off on their own, however the last litter of each season can be nursed for longer than two months. This means that when the young is mature, they can reproduce as well. The short amount of maturity time allows for more reproduction to happen as more hares are able to reproduce.
These adaptations help the Snowshoe Hare to not concede to the mortality rates they face and allow for more reproduction to happen. They are able to conceive much faster and with more efficiency, to utilise the long breeding time and birth many litters in one pregnancy and also the maturity time assists with the rate of pregnancy and the amount of hares that can reproduce. This helps them survive in the Arctic because more hares equal a stable number in the population and less danger of extinction.
The adaptations to the climate, predators, availability of food and mortality rates help Snowshoe Hares survive in the extreme environment of the Arctic. The adaption to climate includes being able to keep warm while still being able to move freely, which are the feet of the Snowshoe Hare and its fur coat. The adaptation to predators includes its fur coat to camouflage and its hind feet to run away and whack its enemy. The adaptation to the availability of food includes the different structures of its internal body and its choices of food. The adaptation to mortality rates includes the breeding times and its different structure of the reproductive system. Each adaptation helps them to survive in all factors of the extreme environment as they always will help them as a group and as individuals to stay safe within the environment. The fur coat helps to adapt to the climate but also to camouflage from its predators, just like its feet being able to be used to adapt to the predators but also for the climate. Its different body structure helps to adapt to the scarcity of food but also to help adapt to the mortality rates. Each adaptation helps more than one factor of the extreme environment. These adaptations help the Snowshoe Hare to assist other animals with their survival but also not to a degree that they themselves are being extinct. The balance between sacrifice of themselves and the protection of themselves helps them to coexist with other animals in the Arctic. The Snowshoe Hare is a fascinating animal with many adaptations to allow it to survive in the extreme environment of the Arctic.
Bibliography:
Fun Facts About Cute Animals - Snowshoe Hare Edition | Explore | Awesome Activities & Fun Facts | Kids' CBC 2. (n.d.). Retrieved March 13, 2016, from http://www.cbc.ca/kidscbc2/the-feed/fun-facts-about-cute-animals-snowshoe-hare-edition
Lepus americanus (snowshoe hare). (n.d.). Retrieved March 08, 2016, from http://animaldiversity.org/accounts/lepus_americanus/
Lepus americanus | Naturally Curious with Mary Holland. (n.d.). Retrieved March 08, 2016, from https://naturallycuriouswithmaryholland.wordpress.com/tag/lepus-americanus/
National Snow and Ice Data Center. (n.d.). Retrieved March 08, 2016, from https://nsidc.org/cryosphere/snow/animals.html
Several ways fur can keep animals warm. (n.d.). Retrieved March 13, 2016, from http://www.naturallynorthidaho.com/2013/01/several-ways-fur-can-keep-animals-war.htm
Shubenacadie Wildlife Park. (n.d.). Retrieved March 08, 2016, from https://wildlifepark.novascotia.ca/animals/snowshoe-hare.asp
Snowshoe Hare. (n.d.). Retrieved March 08, 2016, from http://www.aitc.sk.ca/saskschools/animals/sshoe.html
Snowshoe Hare. (n.d.). Retrieved March 13, 2016, from http://www.bioexpedition.com/snowshoe-hare/
Snowshoe Hare - Lepus americanus. (n.d.). Retrieved March 08, 2016, from http://www.nhptv.org/wild/snowshoehare.asp
Snowshoe Hare - National Wildlife Federation. (n.d.). Retrieved March 08, 2016, from https://www.nwf.org/Wildlife/Wildlife-Library/Mammals/Snowshoe-Hare.aspx
Snowshoe Hare Research. (n.d.). Retrieved March 21, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOUEgqyGnrw
Snowshoe Hare Winter Adaptations - Maine Nature News. (2014). Retrieved March 08, 2016, from http://mainenaturenews.com/2014/02/snowshoe-hare-winter-adaptations/
Snowshoe Hare Winter Adaptations - Maine Nature News. (2014). Retrieved March 08, 2016, from http://mainenaturenews.com/2014/02/snowshoe-hare-winter-adaptations/
Snowshoe Hares, Snowshoe Hare Pictures, Snowshoe Hare Facts - National Geographic. (n.d.). Retrieved March 08, 2016, from http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/snowshoe-hare/
Snowshoe Rabbit -Lepus americanus. (n.d.). Retrieved March 08, 2016, from http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/snowshoe_rabbit.htm
Snowshoe hare photo. (n.d.). Retrieved March 08, 2016, from http://www.arkive.org/snowshoe-hare/lepus-americanus/image-G60548.html
Surviving the Winter: The Importance of Snowshoe Hare Foraging Behavior. (n.d.). Retrieved March 08, 2016, from http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/range556/appl_behave/projects/hare_forage.html
Taylor, B., & Brightling, G. (1995). Arctic & Antarctic. New York: Knopf.
The Snowshoe Hare(Lepus americanus). (n.d.). Retrieved March 17, 2016, from http://www.timberwolfinformation.org/kidsonly/wolfweb/hare1.htm
Snowshoe rabbit Adaptations and habitat. (n.d.). Retrieved March 08, 2016, from https://sites.google.com/a/bvsd.org/snowshoe-rabbit-adaptations-and-habitat/
APA formatting by BibMe.org.
The first adaptation is the adaptation to the climate during the winter. In the Arctic, there is little solar radiation and during the winter, there is even less. Because of the movement of the Arctic Ocean, it keeps the temperature relatively warmer than the Antarctic. The Arctic has an average temperature of -34 degrees celsius during the winter with the areas near the coast being warmer with the constant movement of the Arctic Ocean. Survival in the Arctic is very difficult because of the heavy snow that is showered upon the land during the winter in the freezing temperatures.
This is a factor of the extreme environment, one because of the freezing temperatures that organisms could easily freeze in, and additionally, the snow that falls upon the Arctic contribute greatly to decrease the amount of life that can survive in this area because the snow makes the temperature that animals have to live in much colder and make it harder for them to preserve heat to keep them warm.
The main issue in this factor of the Extreme Environment is that they are unable to maintain its body heat and may freeze to death. This means strategies to attract heat or the preserve heat is needed to survive. By growing more fur especially on the legs and feet is a good adaptation so that it can have movement in the cold. Having fat on the body is also a good way of insulating that heat in the cold.
An organism that hasn’t been adapted to the Arctic environment, would freeze to death within a few days, or even a few hours because they do not have the fur, or insulation techniques to allow it to preserve body heat so because of the loss of heat.
The Snowshoe Hare adapts to this in various ways so that it can survive in the snow and freezing temperatures. It has very large hind feet, giving it the name ‘Snowshoe’, to help it not sink in the snow as it walks and hops so that it can spend less time in the snow and be less subjected to the coldness of the snow. It also has fur on the soles of its feet so that its feet can stay warm to help it preserve heat and maintain movement to produce body heat. They are also able to spread their toes to make their feet replicate a snowshoe which makes their feet able to preserve heat just like a regular pair of snowshoes.
They also have short ears to reduce the heat loss in winter because then less heat is escaped through its ears, in addition to the layers of fat on their bodies so that it can ‘insulate’ the heat that they produce to stay warmer. Their coat of fur consists of silky and soft fur in the inner most part so that it can insulate the heat and then a medium layer of thicker fur is added on top of that and finally an outer layer of coarse and long fur to further preserve heat. The outer layer’s fur can be shed. Their coat is capable of trapping air next to the hare to create another barrier to block out the coldness, another way of insulating.
Because the Snowshoe Hare changes its coat colour in winter, to having a white coat of fur rather than the summer brown coat, it is 27% more insulating as the white coat doesn’t have the pigments that the brown coat has which means it can trap more air within the hairs to get another layer of insulation.
The adaptations of the Snowshoe Hare to the climate of the Arctic is important to promote its survival rate because it allows for the preservation and insulation of heat in a way that still allows for them to have free movement and stay safe. It makes them able to stay warm during the winter that doesn’t interrupt their daily lives.
The second adaptation is the adaptation to the availability of food. During the summer, they can feast on all the nature that it brings and they can access the plants they like to eat. They usually like to eat grass, ferns and leaves during the summer however during the winter, everything changes.
This is a factor of the extreme environment because in the winter, with the snow covering more than inches above the ground, they are unable to access the plants and grass because it’s all covered in snow. This means they have to adapt in ways that can allow them still to access the food that they need to get the nutrients they must have.
Some adaptations that would be useful during this situation would be by being able to access nutrients of plants that don’t contain that much nutrients, being able to find alternative resources for food or by being able to dig through the piles of snow to find food on the ground that used to be buried by snow. These adaptations would allow the organism to access food that is nutritional and beneficial for the development and adaptation process to the winter environment.
An unadapted organism would not be accessing the nutrients they are needing because they would be unable to find nutritious food which means they are lacking the nutrients to help the organism grow and develop. This can lead to sickness and death, and this can also be lead to by starvation because the organism was unable to find food. They can also be easy targets of predators because they have malnutrition and can not outsmart or outrun their predators.
Because there is hardly any food in the winter, Snowshoe Hares have to eat food that is on the snow surface such as woody stems, conifer needles and if forced by the environment, even tree bark will be consumed. It will also eat buds and twigs and just like the Arctic Hare, it can be forced to be carnivorous in extreme environments to steal meat from baited traps, and eat dead mice. They also have very well developed claws which helps them dig through the snow to access the food.
They have a special adaptation to be able to find valuable nutrients in low nutritional foods. Because they have two stomachs, food is primarily digested in the hindgut which is after the food has moved through the stomach. This is different to other herbivores where their food is digested in the foregut. They have gastrointestinal bacteria which is located in the cecum, in a pouch extended from the small intestine which can digest plant nutrients such as cellulose. Then they eat the soft cecal pellets that come from their anus which they consume straight from there. This contains protein that very valuable during the winter and this goes through the body a second time to access this protein.
Hares know what plant parts and which parts give them the most nutrients and energy, so they like to browse for food and only pick the foods with the most nutritional value to eat. This gives them the energy and nutrients to live on with the scarcity of food and gives them the energy to hide from predators in the winter.
Another strategy is that they eat as much food there is so that they can although eat low nutritional food, eat a large quantity of them to make up for the absent nutrients. Then they hide from the predators in the daytime. However, there is a limitation to how much food they can hold in their guts which means they are limited to the amount of food they can process which affects their food choice because if they don’t choose the highest nutritionally valued foods, they won’t be able to gain enough and therefore make them subjected to the consequences of not having enough nutrients.
To access the vegetation during the winter, they set up pathways in the forests so that they can locate food easier. They usually crafted between the feeding and resting sites. This is so they don’t have to waste energy trying to find food elsewhere and by having these pathways, they can access food in the quickest and most efficient way. They access water by melting snow in the mouths to turn into water and drink that. This is another adaptation to the waterholes they usually drink from in the summer.
These strategies and adaptations the Snowshoe Hare makes help them to be able to access food during the winter because it allows them to dig through the snow to find foods with their claws. They are also able to find other kinds of food to access the nutrients and are also able to choose which foods to eat to help them access the nutrients they are needing the most at that time. Because they can eat their cecal pellets, they are able to get the most nutrients out of something that doesn’t have that many nutrients in it. These adaptations all allow the Snowshoe Hare to survive with food in the extreme environment of the Arctic.
The third adaptation is the adaptation to the threat of predators. The Snowshoe Hare is a very important link in the food chain and ecosystem as it provides food for many animals, and predators. The main predators of the Snowshoe Hare is the Lynx which primarily feed on the Snowshoe Hare. Other predators can include bears, eagles and dogs but there are many predators to the Snowshoe Hare. In the wild, “no hare ever dies of old age” as said by James Goerz, a Snowshoe Hare researcher. 85% of mortalities are due to predators.
This is a factor for its extreme environment because the Snowshoe Hare is subjected to many kinds of predators that are dangerous for the existence of the Hare, however, many adaptations to this have allowed the Hare to escape death many times and keep the species well alive and populated.
Adaptations that are useful would be being able to camouflage from the predators with the nature because then they are unable to locate the organism. Being able to outrun your predators is also helpful because then the predator would give up or be too tired. This makes the chance of the organism’s survival much bigger as they are less targeted by the predators and won’t be captured as much.
An unadapted organism would eventually be killed by the predators for food and therefore cause threat to the existence of the organism because they can not outsmart or outrun their predators so they would be captured and killed.
The Snowshoe Hare has a variety of adaptations and strategies to escape predators, one is the use of camouflage. The Snowshoe Hare’s coat in the winter turns white and in the summer turns brown. This is because as the days get shorter from fall to winter, there is less light that can enter the hare’s eyes which makes their brains create certain chemicals that allow for this change, but the tips of the ears are always black. It turns white in the winter to blend in with the snow, and turns brown in the summer to blend in with the dirt and the rocks. This makes the Snowshoe Hare less subjected to predators because they are able to camouflage into its environment so that the predators can not find them.
Another adaptation is that their hind feet are built so that they can run fast with agility as they don’t sink into the snow which can slow them down and they are also able to whack the predators with their hind feet. They can also twist their body in the air so that they can change direction immediately as well as running in zigzag patterns so that the predators get confused and makes it harder for them to locate the hares. They are quite cheeky because they also try to jump vertically upwards to confuse the predator to misjudge the location of the hare.
They have a humped back spine so that they can have more mobility in their legs and larger hearts than normal rabbits so they can run fast and far as they have the endurance instead of having the hide and freeze frequently. They also have a reduced collarbone so they can have free-swinging leg movements and it’s skull is also much lighter as it has pitted bones.This makes it possible for the Snowshoe Hare to outrun its predators and increase its chance of survival.
They warn other Snowshoe Hares by pounding the ground with their hind feet as a signal for danger. For the younger hares, they are unable to run as fast as the older ones, so they freeze and try to blend in with the environment with their camouflaging coats. The older hares, start running away so that the predators can chase them but are unable to outrun the hares. This protects the younger hares to increase the chance of survival and the chance of keeping the population at a high level. They are also able to swim in the water to escape.
They usually are only active in low light levels which makes it harder for them to be seen. This includes dawn, dusk and the night, as well as cloudy days. They shelter under logs and bushes during the day to groom and take naps so that the predators can’t actually find them during the day. In the winter, they spend a long time packing down the snow and removing the twigs that are buried in it so that they have a ‘track’ to escape on. They will jump up and down on the snow to make sure that the runway is hard.
These adaptations help the Snowshoe Hares to survive because it allows them to choose what time of the day they are out to reduce the chance of being seen. If seen, they are able to camouflage or outrun their predators so it’s harder for them to catch the hares because of their body structure. They are also able to communicate with other hares to warn them of danger which helps the other hares to stay safe therefore lessening the chance of mortality.
The fourth adaptation is the adaptation to mortalities. Because of the constant threat of the lynx, a pattern has been created called the cyclic fluctuations when every ten years when the hare’s population increases, the lynx’s population also increases and when the hare’s population decreases, the lynx’s population decreases and after it decreases, it reproduces more to reach its peak, before dropping again. This is an example of the amount of mortalities that happen and to increase the amount of hares in the population, they have to adapt by reproducing more of them.
This is a factor of the extreme environment because the Arctic has many dangers such as predators and the scarcity of food and water. This exposes them to many threats to their individual lives and the population number as a whole. They have learnt to adapt to this by reproducing more hares to prevent extinction.
A useful adaptation is the efficiency of reproduction and producing more and more offspring. By creating more offspring, they are able to keep the population number high and prevent extinction. Also by reproducing litters of offspring at a time is more efficient than just having one offspring in one pregnancy. Also by having a long breeding period is very important as well as the gestation period being shorter can help as well.
An unadapted organism would be endangered by the threats of the Arctic and because the mortality rate would increase rapidly, and if they were not adapted to reproducing more young, the population would decrease and therefore the species would be exposed to endangerment and extinction.
The Snowshoe Hare has adapted to reproducing efficiently and effectively. One way is that females and males use polygynandry as a strategy, which is when one female has many males as mates so that the chance of conceiving offspring is much higher and therefore able to reproduce much faster. When females are ready to mate, groups of males will gather around them. This helps them adapt to the mortality rates because as hares are dying, there are also many more being born to maintain the population number.
Their gestation period lasts 36 days and when they are near parturition, the females are highly aggressive to males and very intolerant but even so, when it is past the 35th of gestation, they are able to impregnated again. This means that they have conceived a second litter before the first is born because they have twin uteri. This makes it very efficient for the reproduction process because it enables the Snowshoe Hare to reproduce much faster as they are able to have more offspring in a shorter amount of time by not needing to give birth, rest and then find another mate. This saves time which allows for more reproduction to happen.
They give birth in an area where the grass has been prepared with packed down grass. They can have litters of up to eight babies but usually is around two to four young. The usual breeding season is around mid-March all the way to August. The litters later on in the season tend to be bigger than the litters earlier on and females are able to have up to four litters a year, which vary according to the environmental conditions however they are capable of giving birth every month. With the long breeding period, this allows the females to have more time to give birth to more litters and with every litter having many offspring, this allows for more young being produced and therefore maintaining and even increasing the population.
Within a year of birth, the young is mature. The young are born with the fur already fully developed around the body, open eyed and able to move the moment they land on the Earth. However, they hide in places during the day to prevent the predators and only come out for about 10 minutes at a time so that their mothers can nurse them. The father leaves the child and does not care about them. The females care for them until around four weeks old, when they are ready to go off on their own, however the last litter of each season can be nursed for longer than two months. This means that when the young is mature, they can reproduce as well. The short amount of maturity time allows for more reproduction to happen as more hares are able to reproduce.
These adaptations help the Snowshoe Hare to not concede to the mortality rates they face and allow for more reproduction to happen. They are able to conceive much faster and with more efficiency, to utilise the long breeding time and birth many litters in one pregnancy and also the maturity time assists with the rate of pregnancy and the amount of hares that can reproduce. This helps them survive in the Arctic because more hares equal a stable number in the population and less danger of extinction.
The adaptations to the climate, predators, availability of food and mortality rates help Snowshoe Hares survive in the extreme environment of the Arctic. The adaption to climate includes being able to keep warm while still being able to move freely, which are the feet of the Snowshoe Hare and its fur coat. The adaptation to predators includes its fur coat to camouflage and its hind feet to run away and whack its enemy. The adaptation to the availability of food includes the different structures of its internal body and its choices of food. The adaptation to mortality rates includes the breeding times and its different structure of the reproductive system. Each adaptation helps them to survive in all factors of the extreme environment as they always will help them as a group and as individuals to stay safe within the environment. The fur coat helps to adapt to the climate but also to camouflage from its predators, just like its feet being able to be used to adapt to the predators but also for the climate. Its different body structure helps to adapt to the scarcity of food but also to help adapt to the mortality rates. Each adaptation helps more than one factor of the extreme environment. These adaptations help the Snowshoe Hare to assist other animals with their survival but also not to a degree that they themselves are being extinct. The balance between sacrifice of themselves and the protection of themselves helps them to coexist with other animals in the Arctic. The Snowshoe Hare is a fascinating animal with many adaptations to allow it to survive in the extreme environment of the Arctic.
Bibliography:
Fun Facts About Cute Animals - Snowshoe Hare Edition | Explore | Awesome Activities & Fun Facts | Kids' CBC 2. (n.d.). Retrieved March 13, 2016, from http://www.cbc.ca/kidscbc2/the-feed/fun-facts-about-cute-animals-snowshoe-hare-edition
Lepus americanus (snowshoe hare). (n.d.). Retrieved March 08, 2016, from http://animaldiversity.org/accounts/lepus_americanus/
Lepus americanus | Naturally Curious with Mary Holland. (n.d.). Retrieved March 08, 2016, from https://naturallycuriouswithmaryholland.wordpress.com/tag/lepus-americanus/
National Snow and Ice Data Center. (n.d.). Retrieved March 08, 2016, from https://nsidc.org/cryosphere/snow/animals.html
Several ways fur can keep animals warm. (n.d.). Retrieved March 13, 2016, from http://www.naturallynorthidaho.com/2013/01/several-ways-fur-can-keep-animals-war.htm
Shubenacadie Wildlife Park. (n.d.). Retrieved March 08, 2016, from https://wildlifepark.novascotia.ca/animals/snowshoe-hare.asp
Snowshoe Hare. (n.d.). Retrieved March 08, 2016, from http://www.aitc.sk.ca/saskschools/animals/sshoe.html
Snowshoe Hare. (n.d.). Retrieved March 13, 2016, from http://www.bioexpedition.com/snowshoe-hare/
Snowshoe Hare - Lepus americanus. (n.d.). Retrieved March 08, 2016, from http://www.nhptv.org/wild/snowshoehare.asp
Snowshoe Hare - National Wildlife Federation. (n.d.). Retrieved March 08, 2016, from https://www.nwf.org/Wildlife/Wildlife-Library/Mammals/Snowshoe-Hare.aspx
Snowshoe Hare Research. (n.d.). Retrieved March 21, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOUEgqyGnrw
Snowshoe Hare Winter Adaptations - Maine Nature News. (2014). Retrieved March 08, 2016, from http://mainenaturenews.com/2014/02/snowshoe-hare-winter-adaptations/
Snowshoe Hare Winter Adaptations - Maine Nature News. (2014). Retrieved March 08, 2016, from http://mainenaturenews.com/2014/02/snowshoe-hare-winter-adaptations/
Snowshoe Hares, Snowshoe Hare Pictures, Snowshoe Hare Facts - National Geographic. (n.d.). Retrieved March 08, 2016, from http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/snowshoe-hare/
Snowshoe Rabbit -Lepus americanus. (n.d.). Retrieved March 08, 2016, from http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/snowshoe_rabbit.htm
Snowshoe hare photo. (n.d.). Retrieved March 08, 2016, from http://www.arkive.org/snowshoe-hare/lepus-americanus/image-G60548.html
Surviving the Winter: The Importance of Snowshoe Hare Foraging Behavior. (n.d.). Retrieved March 08, 2016, from http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/range556/appl_behave/projects/hare_forage.html
Taylor, B., & Brightling, G. (1995). Arctic & Antarctic. New York: Knopf.
The Snowshoe Hare(Lepus americanus). (n.d.). Retrieved March 17, 2016, from http://www.timberwolfinformation.org/kidsonly/wolfweb/hare1.htm
Snowshoe rabbit Adaptations and habitat. (n.d.). Retrieved March 08, 2016, from https://sites.google.com/a/bvsd.org/snowshoe-rabbit-adaptations-and-habitat/
APA formatting by BibMe.org.