By the early 1980s, the population of Florida panthers had dwindled to fewer than 30. Furthermore, within this population was a high frequency of detrimental traits, including low sperm count and undescended testicles in males, and kinked tails in both sexes. The future for this iconic population was bleak at best. Provide an explanation for the observed detrimental traits. Provide a possible solution that would both increase the likelihood that the population would survive and preserve the genetic identity of this unique population.

The population suffered a genetic bottleneck, which decreased genetic variation and thereby randomly increasing the frequency of harmful alleles

Explanation:

A population bottleneck, also known as genetic bottleneck, can be defined as a drastic reduction in the size of a population, which may be caused by anthropic activity and/or environmental phenomena (e.g., earthquakes, famines, fires, droughts, etc). A genetic bottleneck leads to a reduction in genetic variability within a population. Moreover, the genetic drifit caused by a genetic bottleneck can also increase the frequency of harmful alleles/mutations (it is due to the random sampling of individuals), thereby increasing the frequency of deleterious alleles/mutations in the population.

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