Question

The northern elephant seal was almost hunted to extinction in the 1800s. By the late 1890s, approximately one hundred seals were left, reducing the gene pool of the population. What will be the consequence of this reduction?

Answer 1

The answer is C). Genetic drift

Answer 2

The consequence of this event will be decreased genetic variability or more precisely loss of genetic variation due to genetic drift.

There is a process called bottleneck effect, which explains the reduction in gene pool due to decrease in population number. The northern elephant seal is an example of that. When the population number is drastically reduced, the formed smaller population (with a smaller genetic diversity), remains to pass on genes to offspring.

The genetic drift (evolutionary mechanism that affects the allele frequency) caused by a population bottleneck can change the distribution of alleles and even lead to loss of alleles.