You are a wildlife ecologist interested in finding out if Toxoplasma gondii impacts the predator/prey relationship of the Canada lynx and snowshoe hare. If it does, which of the following would be true? You are a wildlife ecologist interested in finding out if Toxoplasma gondii impacts the predator/prey relationship of the Canada lynx and snowshoe hare. If it does, which of the following would be true? The parasite would affect the brain of the lynx. The parasite would not affect the brain of the lynx or the brain of the hare. The parasite would affect the brain of the lynx and the brain of the hare. The parasite would affect the brain of the hare.

Toxoplasma gondii is a parasite that is able to infect pretty much every warm blooded animal on the planet. It is an obligate intracellular parasitic one-celled eukaryote. This parasite manages to cause the infectious disease known as toxoplasmosis which damages the brain. The hare is a warm blooded animal, and it can be infected by this parasite. If the hare is infected and a Canadian lynx kills that particular hare and consumes it, then the lynx will also be infected with the parasite. The parasite will cause damage to the lynx's brain which will result in the dying of that lynx.