Snow camouflage as Hugh B. Cott have echoed his observations, adding that other animals of the Arctic such as musk ox, moose, reindeer, wolverine and raven never become white "even in the coldest parts of their range". Cott noted that both animals that hunt, like polar bear and stoat, and prey animals like ptarmigan and mountain hare, require camouflage to hide from prey or from predators respectively. There is little experimental evidence for the adaptiveness of white as camouflage, though the ornithologist W. L. N. Tickell, reviewing proposed explanations of white plumage in birds, writes that in the ptarmigan "it is difficult
Winter Mountain 2011. In 2015, after releasing one album together, Smyth left Winter Mountain and Francis opted to keep the name for his solo work. In summer of 2016 Francis performed one of his first solo shows as Winter Mountain, opening for Seal. Later that same week, a solo Winter Mountain opened for The Feeling and the lead singer of Elbow, Guy Garvey. Winter Mountain released the self-produced 'I Swear I Flew' on his 'Astral Fox Records' label in November 2016. A song from the record, 'The Lucky Ones', received radio play across the UK and Europe from multiple stations including BBC