Question

Michelle, a zookeeper, was collecting data on rabbits. She found that in a population of 1000 rabbits, 360 had long ears (L1), 150 had medium ears (L1), and 490 had short ears (II) at a given time.

Michelle also studied the next generation of rabbits and found that their population decreased significantly to 400. Now, there are 336 rabbits with long ears and 64 rabbits with short ears. Give a reason to explain the change in gene frequencies in the new population.

Answer 1

The change in gene frequencies was probably due to genetic drift. A large decrease in population (from 1,000 to 400) led to a random loss of alleles, which favoured rabbits with long ears (LL).