Question

Hunting reduced the population of northern elephant seals to as few as 20 individuals at the end of the 19th century. their population has since rebounded to over 50,000, but they have much less genetic variation than a population of southern elephant seals that was not so intensely hunted. how is the lack of genetic variation related to the hunting episodes of the 1800's?

Answer 1

The answer is A) Genetic drift occurred: the few individuals left behind were the seals that passed on that specific gene pool.

Answer 2

The 20 original seals had only a few remaining genes from the past generation. When they had offspring a select amount of those genes were passed down. This continued to happen as the seals reproduced limiting the seals genes.