Up north — in Canada and other places where snowy winters are reliable (and reliably heavy) — you find more animals whose fur comes in various shades of white. This is true even for species that are brown or black further south. The difference is obvious. But how does it happen? Carl Zimmer presents two possible paths to paleness — random mutation, and fortuitous cross-species mating. In related news: Golden retrievers are probably getting it on with Canadian coyotes.

  • OldBrownSquirrel

    So how does this apply to people? Were Neanderthals white or something? ;-)

  • Neural Kernel

    Slutty coyotes, thats awesome!

  • http://excelsior-station.wikidot.com Sarge Misfit

    “… in Canada and other places where snowy winters are reliable …” Not as reliable as they were in the past. I should know, I live in the same area of BC, the Columbia Mountain region, as when I was a child in the early 70s. And there is definitely far less snow in winters now than there were then.

  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/stefan_e_jones/ Stefan Jones

    That white coyote is very pretty.

  • Mel Green

    My dog is either an eighth or a fourth coyote but looks more like a small German Shepherd. She’s a great dog and very smart. The two things I believe she “got” from the coyote side are excellent hunting skills of moles, squirrels, birds, and frogs and the howling at the moon (or emergency sirens).

    • http://www.flickr.com/photos/stefan_e_jones/ Stefan Jones

       If I won the lottery and had enough money to buy some land and not have to work, I’d try breeding interesting dogs with some coyote contributions.