Abstract:Color variation is a frequent evolutionary substrate for camouflage in small mammals but the underlying genetics and evolutionary forces that drive color variation in natural populations of large mammals are mostly unexplained. The American black bear, Ursus americanus, exhibits a range of colors including the cinnamon morph which has a similar color to the brown bear, U. arctos, and is found at high frequency in the American southwest. Reflectance and chemical melanin measurements showed little distinction be… Show more
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