Question

Historically, the population of california condors probably numbered in the thousands of birds. however, because of human use of pesticides, hunting, and habitat destruction, the population declined to no more than 13 individuals. now, thanks to captive breeding, reintroduction programs, pesticide control, and habitat preservation, the population is increasing in size. what would you predict would be the primary difference in numbers of alleles per locus and allelic frequencies in the prehistoric versus modern (recovered) populations of condors?

Answer 1

The California condors have survived genetic bottleneck which is the huge reduction in the size of a population due to environmental events or human activities. Because the genetic bottleneck resulted in inbreeding and decreased fitness, the genetic diversity of California condors increased dramatically. Besides the evidence that the bottleneck led to the loss of genetic variation and changes in allele frequencies, it has been shown by recent studies that there was an increase in the frequency of the putative allele for chondrodystrophy, which is a lethal form of dwarfism.