Question 4: Fitness and Survival The California Condor and the American Vulture

Question

Question 4: Fitness and Survival

The California Condor and the American Vulture are two bird species living in the southwestern U.S. The California Condor is listed as a critically endangered species, while the American Vulture is in the category of “least concern.” The graph below shows the population history of the condor over the last 100 years. Genetic diversity within the California Condor population is very low. By contrast, American Vulture populations are much larger, cover a wide range across the U.S., and have a high genetic diversity.

a) Explain how the size of the population affects the difference in genetic diversity of the California Condor and the American Vulture.

b) Explain the difference in the ability of the two bird species to survive a major environmental change such as an extended drought based upon the diversity of the populations. Justify your reasoning.

c) During the process of captive breeding, animals are bred in a human controlled environment in order to ensure the reproductive ability of the species. This is a tool to prevent the extinction of a particular species in order to ensure the reproduction of the species. A captive breeding plan was implemented in 1987 to capture all 22 of the wild condors in existence. Offspring of these condors have since been released back into the wild. Explain the effect of captive breeding and subsequent release into the wild on biodiversity of the community and the genetic diversity of the population.

Explanation / Answer

a. The population of California condor is endangered and under proper conservation, so it will get all the favorable conditions to survive. The law of genetic equilibrium tells that there is no genetic diversity among organism if it is under constant environment without any external pressure like migration, mutation, selection etc. This is why there is very less genetic diversity in small population of endangered California condor.

On the other hand the population of American vulture is quite large and widely distributed and undergoes various selection pressures like geographical distribution, food availability, atmospheric variations etc. This is why it show a great genetic diversity among te large population widely distributed.

b. If there is a situation like drought, then the birds which are under constant environment and small population like California condor will face genetic drift and will or may lead to the end of the population.

On the other hand the large population of American vulture will undergo this pressure of drought, and will undergo selective adaptation, but due to its large population the change will be little and show less impact and the population of the vultures will show less variation.

c. Due to captive breeding, we maintain the genetic similarity of the population in order to protect them, when they are present in small no.

But when they have maintained a significant size in terms of no. then they are been released back into the wild. In this way they start to contribute in the increased level of genetic diversity among that population and helps in their further survival. But there is a lot environmental and selective pressure on them, so they need to be under observation constantly till they achieve their diversity and adapt themselves in the wild population.

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