Natural Selection in Populations of Bears

Introduction:
Teddy Grahams exhibit many different characteristics. Some of these characteristics affect their
adaptability while others do not. An example of a characteristic that has no effect on their adaptability
includes skin tone (honey, chocolate-chip, or chocolate). Additionally, some bears have missing parts, such
as legs, arms, or ears. Although you might think that this would affect their success in future generations,
missing parts have no effect on their evolutionary success.
One characteristic that is of particular importance to their success is their arm position. Teddy graham
predators (i.e., you) particularly like to eat happy bears- that is, bears with their arms raised up. Happy
bears wave their arms which makes them easy to spot. Happy bears taste sweet and are easy to catch. Sad
bears keep their arms at their sides which makes them more difficult to spot. Sad bears taste bitter, are
sneaky, and are hard to catch. As a result of this peculiarity to teddy grahams, sadness is an adaptive
advantage.
Purpose: To observe the effects of natural selection on a population of bears over four generations.
Hypothesis: Predict what will happen to the bear population over four generations.
Methods:
1. Work in twos or threes for this lab. Obtain a population of teddy grahams. This is your first generation of
teddy grahams. Sort these into happy and sad bears. Record the total number of bears, the number of
happy, and sad bears.
2. Eat three Happy bears. If you dont have three Happy bears, then eat the difference in sad bears.
3. Obtain a new generation from the teacher. These new bears represent the newborns for the next year.
Repeat steps one and two.
4. Repeat for three more generations (total of four).
Observations

For each generation record the total number of bears, the number of happy and sad bears.
Generation
population
size

# of Happy
Bears at
start of
generation

# of Sad
Bears at
start of
generation

Total

% Happy
Bears

% Sad
Bears

1. (initial)
2
3
4
Analysis
1. Complete the table above.
2. Sketch a graph of the allele frequency for the four generations.
Consider the fact that the happy trait is recessive. Therefore happy bears are homozygous
recessive. Because the sad trait is dominant, the sad bears are either homozygous dominant
or heterozygous.
3. What specifically happens to the genotypic frequencies from generation one to generation four?
4. Is the Hardy-Weinberg theorem valid for the population in this experiment? Which, if any, of the conditions
of the theorem did this population not meet?
5. Explain what would happen if the selection pressure changed and the recessive gene was selected for.
6. Do you think the colour was a selection pressure? Why or why not?
7. What would happen if it were better to be heterozygous? Would there be homozygous bears? Explain.
8. Explain why the recessive gene does not disappear from the population.
9. Is this an example of natural selection or genetic drift as a result of population size?
10. Do you think this population was undergoing evolution? Why or why not?
11. What is survival of the fittest? Does this lab demonstrate this idea which Darwin hypothesized? Explain.
Conclusions