Essay Example on Marmot Species Discovered on St.Kitt: Research Findings

Having gone through the case study of the Trouble in paradise, it is evident that the new Marmot species was discovered on the island of St.Kitt. What triggered the discovery was the research that was under the sponsor of west indie's Department of Nature and Island Resources. From the data given from the research, two main discoveries were made in relation to the failure of the attempts of production. The first one is the variations existing in the gestation period of the two marmot w, i.e., 29.3 days for Kitt and 42.7 days for the Larva Marmot. The second is in the time spent courtship display. The Kitt Marmot from the data spends 12.6 seconds while the Larva one spends 21.3 seconds. Such kind of behavioral isolation, which is mainly known as Prezygotic Reproductive Isolation, can be prevent mating, and this shows why the process of copulation was not taking place.

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From the above disparities, it is depicted that there was a huge difference in biological reproductive between the two species. In this case, in case there would have been a chance for the copulation, then the natural reproduction process would be much limited. Concerning the species morphological variation, a close inspection revealed the variations in weight, leg length, length, and even the forelimb size despite that the two species looked identical (Xin, 2003). It is therefore suspected that these two species had once lived together, but through geographical features, they were separated through ocean water, which was between the two islands.

Therefore from the data presented, the main aim of the connection between the two species at one point in time. Through the research of the samples from the bottom of the Narrows, the isolation of the terrestrial organisms fossils remains was easier. Through this case, it can be concluded that a land bridge had connected the two islands at one point in time, and it is possible that the two marmots shared the same heritage. Through series of times, the islands were drawn apart by the ocean leading to the evolution of the marmots into different species through Prezygotic Reproductive Isolation - Habitat isolation, which is commonly referred to as the geographical isolation (Oswald, 2011). From St. Kitt's geography's inspection, sometimes after the disappearance of the land bridge, there had been several eruptions from its volcanoes.

The volcanoes hence covered a great deal of the islands with new lava, which could have led to the drastic reduction in the St. Kitt's Marmots population. The decrease in the population would lead to the effect of the bottleneck, which would have triggered the change in the gene composition of the other population. Consequently, some of the alleles would be underrepresented, and hence there would be the continuation of the genetic drift. Besides, due to the eruption, many species of plants would be found on Nevis Island, for instance, the ground-hugging meal nut bush, which was a primary source of food for the Nevis Island marmots (Shepard, 2010). Thus it is suspected that it is the struggle to obtain the food, which caused the changes in the directional selection, which led to the variations in speed, agility, and morphological differences.

Therefore, it is seen that the problems of St. Kitt's marmot population are being affected by the development, which is reducing the berry bushes as well as the taller nuts. A low supply of food might lead to lower survival or even reproduction rates. The assumption from the above case study is that the majority of the changes in the species were not produced from their adaptations to the local environment. The two environments in the West Indies are almost the same. Thus the effect of genetic drift between the two species is what might have led to the great differences in the two species.

References

Xin, K., & Pucik, V. (2003). Trouble in paradise. Harvard Business Review, 81(8), 27-37.

Oswald, F., Schilling, O., Wahl, H. W., & Gang, K. (2011). Trouble in paradise? Reasons to relocate and objective environmental changes among well-off older adults. Journal of environmental psychology, 22(3), 273-288. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1066793801001336

Shepard Jr, G. H., Rummenhoeller, K., Ohl-Schacherer, J., & Yu, D. W. (2010). Trouble in paradise: indigenous populations, anthropological policies, and biodiversity conservation in Manu National Park, Peru. Journal of Sustainable Forestry, 29(2-4), 252-301. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10549810903548153