Question

What factors should we consider when determining why the chicken "loses" to the fox? A chicken can fly and perch on higher places than the fox can likely get to. Does one animal have worse hearing than the other? Or are its other senses not as keen? Does one animal sleep more soundly or just more than the other? What necessary information would you need to determine why one of these animals (the fox) tends to always come out on top when in some other scenarios the obvious result does not turn out as expected? Fully explain your rationale. Identify a different real-world situation and interpret the results of the outcome. Were the results expected? Fully explain your rationale.

Answer 1

Answer:

Domestic chicken evolved by artificial selection and therefore they are less adapted to survive in nature where prey populations coexist with the predators (like the fox).

Explanation:

Commercial chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus) is the result of the artificial selection exerted by early farmers in China 8,000 years ago. Artificial selection is aimed at benefiting one or more particular traits in detriment of others. Domestic chickens were selected by humans to produce fast-growing meat animals in detriment of traits found in wild progenitors of modern chicken. In consequence, the processes of artificial selection result in a loss in genetic diversity in traits that are not being selected including, for example, phenotypic characteristics associated with the ability to avoid predators.