Example of the Bottleneck Effect
- A clear example of a genetic bottleneck can be seen in cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus) today
CC BY-SA 4.0, by Charles J. Sharp, via Wikimedia Commons
- Roughly 10,000 years ago there was a large and genetically diverse cheetah population
- Most of the population was suddenly killed off when the climate changed drastically at the end of the Ice Age
- As a result the surviving cheetahs were isolated in small populations and lots of inbreeding occurred
- This meant that the cheetah population today has a lack of genetic variation
- This is problematic for conservation as genetic variation within a species increases the likelihood that the species is able to respond in the event of any environmental changes
- Remember the environment exerts a selection pressure on organisms