Question

Due to hunting, the population of Northern elephant seals was reduced to 20 individuals at the end of the 19th century. Since then, their population has since rebounded to over 30,000.
What is the most likely long-term effect of hunting on the elephant seal population?

a) The population is more likely to survive disease.
b) The population contains high allelic diversity.
c) Individuals are genetically similar to each other.
d) The population has allele frequencies similar to those in the original population.

Answer 1

Answer:

Option C

Explanation:

Long term hunting has led to following  

a) Reduction in population size and hence the gene pool

b) Causation of Bottleneck effect

Due to above factors, the remaining population of Northern elephant seals does not represent the original genetic problem.  

Due to this restriction in mating and genetic variation shall prevail pertaining to reduced gene pool.  

Due to continuous hunting, the gene pool will further shrink, leading to genetic similarity among the organism

Option C is correct