Question

How will this most likely affect the rabbit population on the island? There will be fewer predators that eat the rabbits, so the rabbit population will quickly grow. Other animals will eat less food, so the rabbit population will remain stable. The rabbits will adapt to eating very little food, so the population will increase slowly over time. Few rabbits will be able to find food, so the population will die off and become extinct.

Answer 1

Without predators, lizards on an island could proliferate and possibly overpopulate, favoring traits like increased fertility. Lizards with predators will adapt with traits aiding in survival from predation. Rodents in the Arctic will evolve a balance between size for warmth and hiding from predators, demonstrating natural selection.

Step-by-step explanation:

Impact of Predation on Lizard Populations

When considering how a lack of predators might affect a population, the island with no lizard predators will likely lead to a situation where the lizards could flourish, potentially leading to overpopulation. Without the pressure of predation, natural selection might favor traits such as increased fertility or behaviors that maximize survival without the need to evade predators. In contrast, the lizards on the island with a predator will face significant selective pressures that favor traits or behaviors aiding in evasion or survival from being preyed upon. This could lead to adaptations such as increased vigilance, better hiding behaviors, or physical traits that make them more challenging for predators to catch.

As for the rodent population near the Arctic Circle, the natural selection process will be influenced by the balancing act between needing small size to hide from predators and sufficient body mass to maintain internal temperature in cold weather. Given these selective pressures, one might expect to see a trend in the rodent population towards individuals that manage to retain enough body mass to stay warm while still being able to hide in crags from predators like hawks.

An understanding of the logistic model can provide insight into the expected fluctuations of animal populations in the absence of human intervention. Populations may grow when conditions are favorable and food is abundant, but they may also decrease in response to factors such as depletion of resources or increased predation. In this context, the rabbit population is a classic example of how natural selection operates: white fur becomes a favored trait in snowy environments, improving camouflage from predators like foxes and thus contributing to higher survival and reproductive rates for rabbits with this trait.

Referring to genetic differences, genetic drift on islands can result in significant genetic changes within a population. Smaller population size often found on islands can lead to a more rapid loss of alleles, as exemplified in the scenario of rabbits with coat color alleles, where a dominant allele becomes more common while a recessive allele may disappear over several generations.

Answer 2

The absence of predators will likely cause the rabbit population on the island to quickly grow, though other factors can also influence population dynamics.

Step-by-step explanation:

In this scenario, the absence of predators will likely cause the rabbit population on the island to quickly grow.

With fewer predators that eat the rabbits, there will be less predation pressure on the rabbit population, allowing it to increase in number. This can lead to a rapid growth of the rabbit population.

However, it is important to note that ecosystems are complex, and other factors such as resource availability and competition with other species can also influence the population dynamics of rabbits. While the absence of predators may provide an opportunity for population growth, it is not the only factor that determines the fate of the rabbit population.