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
Arctic fox pads are covered in fur. There are two genetically distinct coat color morphs: white and blue. In the winter the white morph is white in color and turns brown along the back with light grey around the abdomen in summer. The blue morph is often a dark blue, brown, or grey color year-round. Although the blue allele is dominant over the white allele, 99% of the Arctic fox population is the white morph. The fur of the Arctic fox provides the best insulation of any mammal. The fox has a low surface area to volume ratio, as evidenced by its