Question

A population of 1,000 birds exists on a small Pacific island. Some of the birds are yellow, a trait determined by a recessive allele. The others are green, a trait determined by a dominant allele. A hurrican on the island kills most of the birds from this population. Only ten remain, and those birds all have yellow feathers. Which of the following statements is true regarding the hypothetical situation?
A. Assuming that no new birds coome to the island and no mutations occur, future generations of this population will contain both green and yellow birds.
B. The hurricane has caused a population bottleneck.
C. This situation illustrtes the principle of adaptive radiation.
D. This situation illustrates the founder effect Or, The ten remaining birds will mate only with each other, and will contribute to gene flow in the population.

Answer 1

Answer:

B. The hurricane has caused a population bottleneck.

Explanation:

Bottleneck refers to a sudden reduction in the population size due to any adverse environmental conditions. The remaining smaller population then undergoes genetic drift and the genetic diversity of the population is reduced.  

According to the question, the original population of 1000 birds was reduced to a population of 10 birds due a hurricane, that is, population bottleneck. The population of 10 birds does not have all the genes and alleles present in the original population and exhibit reduced genetic diversity.