Atypical winter coat coloration of snowshoe hares near the southern extent of their range

Many species have a variety of adaptations to winter weather, but these adaptations could become maladaptive if winter snowfall and temperatures are more variable. Snowshoe hares (Lepus americanus) molt from a brown summer coat to a white winter coat, but reductions in snow cover could result in phenotypic mismatch, which in turn could reduce survival. Hare populations near the southern extent of their range might be especially sensitive to phenotypic mismatch because of variable winter weather, but variation in winter coat coloration could allow for these populations to persist in inconsistent snow cover conditions. Using capture data (n=59 individual hares) spanning 8 years, we document the prevalence of 3 atypical winter coat color phenotypes (brown bodies, brown-ringed eyes, and brown ears) in a snowshoe hare population in Pennsylvania. The majority of hares in our study (84.7%) exhibited at least one of these atypical winter phenotypes, with a high probability of hares having brown..., , , # Atypical winter coat coloration of snowshoe hares near the southern extent of their range

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.gmsbcc2zv](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.gmsbcc2zv)

## Description of the data and file structure

Data of snowshoe hare winter coloration phenotypes, Pennsylvania, 2014-2022.
### Files and variables

#### File: Ecosphere\_hare\_coloration\_data.csv

**Description:** Hare coloration data

##### Variables

* Hare_ID: Unique individual animal ID
* Capture_date: Date of animal capture at which photos were taken to document coloration (dd/mm/yyyy format)
* Study: Phone of the research project either indicating Old (2014-2015) or New (2021-2022)
* Brown_body: Binary column indicating if a hare exhibited a brown winter body
* Brown_ears: Binary column indicating if a hare exhibited brown winter ears
* Brown_eyes: Binary column indicating if a hare exhibited winter brown-ringed eyes
* DOY: Day of the year associated with the capture data

## Access information

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