Question

A population of a wild animal is a frequent target for hunters. hunters tend to hunt the larger animals with big horns. how might this affect the populations in the wild? animals with average horns will increase in number. smaller animals with a trait for short horns will become endangered. traits for larger animals with big horns will be selected. traits for smaller animals with short horns will be selected. nextreset

Answer 1

The smaller animals with short horns will be selected because the selection pressure, the hunters, favors their survival.

Answer 2

The correct answer is - traits for smaller animals with short horns will be selected.

Because of the pressure from the hunters that will be put upon the animals that are larger and have big horns, the animals will respond in having smaller size and smaller horns, or even be without horns. This will be an evolutionary trait in order for the animals to be able to survive, as they will be witnessing the death of the larger ones with bigger horns, so the selection will be going in the opposite way as the chances for survival are greater.

The example with the elephants in South Africa is a perfect example, where the elephants started to have much shorter tusks, or no tusks at all, after they were hunting because of the tusks.