Question

Consider the following scenario

A drought hits the habitat of a semi aquatic bird population, all ponds dry up and fish population decline. There are two groups of birds in the population that different in leg length and diet long legged birds, eat fish while short legged birds eat insects. The drought has little effect insect population what is the main selective pressure in the scenario?

Answer 1

[AI-generated answer — Bot GPT 3.5]

The main selective pressure in this scenario would be the availability of food sources. With the drying up of the ponds and the decline in the fish population, the long-legged birds that rely on fish as their primary food source would be at a disadvantage. On the other hand, the short-legged birds that primarily eat insects would be better adapted to the changing conditions and have a higher likelihood of survival. Over time, this could result in the long-legged birds being selected against in the population, leading to a shift towards a higher proportion of short-legged birds.