Final answer:
If every elephant offspring survived to their maximum reproductive potential, we would expect to see a significant increase in their population. Elephants have a lower intrinsic rate of increase (rmax) compared to fleas because they reproduce slowly, resulting in different time scales required for studying population changes.
Step-by-step explanation:
If every offspring of elephants survived to reach their maximum reproductive potential, we would expect to see enormous growth in elephant populations over time. Elephants have a lower rmax, or intrinsic rate of increase, compared to smaller, faster breeding animals like fleas. This is because elephants reproduce much more slowly, have fewer offspring, and invest a significant amount of time and resources into each one. A shorter time scale would be used to observe changes over several generations of fast-reproducing organisms such as fleas, whereas a longer time scale is necessary to observe such changes in elephant populations. The study of population dynamics between different organisms like elephants and fleas illustrates the dramatic differences in reproductive strategies and their impact on population growth rates.