Chigoziri, Jariani, Gabriel, and Yan Writing for the Sciences
Professor Zayas
Natural Selection Lab Report
Feb. 16, 2023
The lab : https://phet.colorado.edu/sims/html/natural-selection/latest/natural-selection_en.html
Natural Selection Broken Down
Introduction
What is Natural Selection?
Natural selection is the process through which populations of living organisms adapt and change. This means that within a population they are organisms that are stronger that help them survive better in their habitat. This organism passes down these traits to their offspring, which later on become a common gene in the population. Natural selection is broken down in five basic steps, which are variations, inheritance, selection, time and adaptation. Variation and inheritance are random mutations that are passed down on organisms. Such as the color of fur, size, etc. Selection is survival and reproduction, where the organisms adapt and change to be able to survive in their environments. Where in the environment resources are limited. Time and adaptation is that with time the dominant gene and adaptation will increase with the population.
Specific Background of lab
This lab was carried out in a warm environment. The subject of the lab being bunnies. The survival skills of bunnies with white and brown fur were observed. The chosen environmental factor that was introduced after the second generation of the population, were the predators, wolves. The duration of the lab was for eleven generations.

Motivation / Hypothesis
Having understood the mechanism of natural selection, we began to question the significance of genetics in survival rates. With genetics (variation and inheritance) being the topic of our investigation, we began to question the chances of survival of the bunnies when a predator was introduced. Which led us to develop the hypothesis that population of the brown fur will be better suited to survive in a warm dusty environment because they can blend better with their environment compared to the white furred
Methods & Material
In this experiment we used bunnies and wolves in a warm and dry environment, thus creating our control variables. Brown bunnies were the dominant gene while the white bunnies were the recessive genes. Then we observed over time how the bunnies’ population changed when they were introduced with wolves. There was a direct relationship between the brown furred genes and time. As time went by, the population of the brown furred bunnies also increased. Whereas as there was an indirect relationship between the white furred genes and time. Meaning as time went by, the population of the white furred bunnies eventually decreased. This observation lasted for 11 generations and with same control variables of environment and chosen predator.
Results
Figure 1. Bunnies proportions at the start of the experiment.
With Figure 1 we see that at the start of the lab, the bunnies proportions start off with only two white bunnies.

Figure 2. Bunnies proportions when wolves were introduced to the environment.
With Figure 2 we see the effects of the introduction of wolves to the bunnies proportions. The third generation begins with 54 bunnies, with 83% of the population being white furred and 17% being brown furred. The generation ends with 12 bunnies, with 50% of the population being white furred and 50% being brown furred
Figure 3. Bunnies proportions two generations after the wolves’ introduction.
With Figure 3 we see the continued effects of the introduction of wolves to the bunnies proportions. The third generation begins with 37 bunnies, with 27% of the population being white furred and 73% being brown furred. The generation ends with 19 bunnies, with 11% of the population being white furred and 89% being brown furred

Figure 4. Bunnies proportions five generations after the wolves’ introduction.
With Figure 4 we see the continued effects of the introduction of wolves to the bunnies proportions. The eighth generation begins with 139 bunnies, with 6% of the population being white furred and 94% being brown furred. The generation ends with 86 bunnies, with 1% of the population being white furred and 99% being brown furred.
Figure 5. Bunnies proportions at the end of the lab.
With Figure 5 we see the final effects of the introduction of wolves to the bunnies proportions. The eleventheleventh generation begins with 642 bunnies, with 34% of the population being white furred and 96% being brown . The generation ends with 374 bunnies, with < 1 % of the population being white furred and > 99 % being brown furred

Discussion
Natural selection was best shown in brown fur bunnies. The brown fur bunnies population was increasing through every generation. Their dominant brown fur traits were successfully passed down to offspring. The white fur trait seems to be recessive while the white fur bunnies population is decreasing after a few generations due to environmental factors. We hypothesized that the population of brown fur will be better suited to survive in a warm dusty environment because they can blend better with their environment compared to white fur. The result proves that our hypothesis is correct since brown fur traits are strong enough to pass down through many generations and the bunnies which carried these traits were better at surviving while interacting with wolves. In order to improve this experiment we found some limitations of this lab that could affect the accuracy of the result of our research. The lack of environmental factors, A small change in environmental conditions can lead to a considerable difference in the result. In this lab we only used one factor which is the wolf and one factor is not enough to closely simulate real-life conditions. It is not precious enough to only use wolves as the factor that impacts the survival of the bunnies with different traits. The bunnies might die from diseases, viruses, temperature changes, predators other than wolves, human hunters, etc; There are many other factors that could impact the bunnies’ population and generations. In future experiments, we could test different varieties of environmental factors that could impact bunnies’ natural selection and make the dominant trait keep on passing down to the next generation.
Conclusion
We concluded that the brown bunnies were indeed the dominant species over white bunnies after going through eleven generations of natural selection. This was because the brown bunnies used the earthy environment to be able to blend in away from wolves while the white bunnies were helpless against the wolves since they were easily out in the open. With our findings, we can better understand the importance of looks (genetics) in survival with bunnies and humans. The brown fur being the dominant gene set a norm in terms of what was the right way to look in order to survive. And as mentioned in the discussion, different factors such as environmental setting create the scene of what is normal and the advantages of such in the grand scheme of survival.

Reference List
● Natural selection. Generation Genius. (2020, December 10). Retrieved February 17, 2023, from https://www.generationgenius.com/videolessons/natural-selection-video-for- kids/#:~:text=Natural%20selection%20is%20a%20 process,and%20pass%20on%20their %20genes.
● Natural Selection. (n.d.). https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/natural- selection/
● What is natural selection? (n.d.). Natural History Museum. https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/what-is-natural-selection.html
● How does natural selection work? 5 basic steps (VISTA): AMNH. American Museum of Natural History. (2023). Retrieved February 17, 2023, from https://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/darwin/evolution-today/natural-selection- vista#:~:text=Natural%20selection%20is%20a%20simple,%