Species: Columbia Basin Pygmy Rabbit
Project Background
For this project, we were assigned to research and make some sort of presentation to the class about an endangered species of our choice. We had to focus on several main things, such as the animal's ecosystem, it's predators and diet, it's habitat as well as some evolutionary history to the animal. The species my group and I chose for this project was the Columbia Basin Pygmy Rabbit.
Concepts
Evolution: When a species changes over time developing new features or skills. This can occur on any scale and in many shape or form, evolution can lead to new species, rather than just one species changing over time.
Mutation: Mutation is a large contributor to evolution as it is a random or slight difference in the genetic code leading to a new or changed feature in the species.
Adaptions: Adaptions are evolutionary changes that occur to help a species better survive in it's environment. This could be such as adapting to eat a certain plant or new skills to evade predators.
Gene flow: genes shared between species and habitats this could be applied to birds, cats, and dogs
Gene Pool: The pool of genetic traits that are possible to be passed down in the species. These could either be good or bad mutations and depending on the habitat and population of the species in question.
Natural Selection: The random selection by nature of who lives and dies in what environment. One species could be favorable because of it's camouflaging patterns or another because of it's poisonous body chemicals.
Artificial Selection: Artificial selection is when the choice of mating is made by humans rather than the creatures themselves, humans can pick the most desirable traits of the batch and condition the traits to be more likely in the gene pool.
Biodiversity: This is the genetic diversity of an ecosystem and that is important for any species to evolve. Without Biodiversity ecosystems would be non existent and hectic.
Allopatric Speciation: When two species of the same origin evolve differently due to a geographical barrier such as an ocean or being on an island, an example of this is all species of birds, who are related but so different based on where they evolved.
Sympatric Speciation: When two species evolve similarly but with slight differences in the same region, a good example is the rock pocket mouse where on one side of the field the mice have dark fur and on the other the mice have light fur.
Behavioral Isolation: When two organisms of different species cannot mate because the mating ritual's intentions are not understood by the other party and it is unclear they wish to mate.
Non-Random Mating: Female organisms choose which male they want to mate with and choose males with the traits they find most appealing usually the ones that are strong.
Extinction: Extinction occurs when a certain species dies out or is no longer able to reproduce, thus wiping them out of their habitat with no natural way to come back.
Mutation: Mutation is a large contributor to evolution as it is a random or slight difference in the genetic code leading to a new or changed feature in the species.
Adaptions: Adaptions are evolutionary changes that occur to help a species better survive in it's environment. This could be such as adapting to eat a certain plant or new skills to evade predators.
Gene flow: genes shared between species and habitats this could be applied to birds, cats, and dogs
Gene Pool: The pool of genetic traits that are possible to be passed down in the species. These could either be good or bad mutations and depending on the habitat and population of the species in question.
Natural Selection: The random selection by nature of who lives and dies in what environment. One species could be favorable because of it's camouflaging patterns or another because of it's poisonous body chemicals.
Artificial Selection: Artificial selection is when the choice of mating is made by humans rather than the creatures themselves, humans can pick the most desirable traits of the batch and condition the traits to be more likely in the gene pool.
Biodiversity: This is the genetic diversity of an ecosystem and that is important for any species to evolve. Without Biodiversity ecosystems would be non existent and hectic.
Allopatric Speciation: When two species of the same origin evolve differently due to a geographical barrier such as an ocean or being on an island, an example of this is all species of birds, who are related but so different based on where they evolved.
Sympatric Speciation: When two species evolve similarly but with slight differences in the same region, a good example is the rock pocket mouse where on one side of the field the mice have dark fur and on the other the mice have light fur.
Behavioral Isolation: When two organisms of different species cannot mate because the mating ritual's intentions are not understood by the other party and it is unclear they wish to mate.
Non-Random Mating: Female organisms choose which male they want to mate with and choose males with the traits they find most appealing usually the ones that are strong.
Extinction: Extinction occurs when a certain species dies out or is no longer able to reproduce, thus wiping them out of their habitat with no natural way to come back.
Content
Our Procedure:
Firstly we begun by picking an animal, after looking through government lists we decided upon the Columbia Basin Pygmy Rabbit or Brachylagus Idahoensis. We then set to work doing research and reading articles detailing the progress and state of the species over the years. A lot of our information came from a report on the Columbia Basin Pygmy Rabbit conducted in the mid 2000's. After we gathered all our research we made a slideshow as that was how we had originally intended to present. However, we decided to switch to a movie, but to stay organized we kept all of our data in the slideshow. After writing and drafting out a script. we set to filming all over campus. |
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Reflection
In this project, I was not one hundred pleased with the outcome. In this project, I was satisfied with the behind the scenes work, as I did a majority of the research and selected the animal on which we would research. I was pleased with my cooperation skills when I wrote the script and contributed a lot to the project without actually being on camera and keeping my own limits in mind with being on camera. I worked on writing a script for a short film and furthered my writing skills and also my research skills while I was reading heavily worded professional documents. Even after all of that I still felt that I was not a strong enough voice in advocating the work I did, even when it was all behind the scenes. In the next project I hope to improve upon my leadership skills while continuing to work on my cooperation and work ethic skills. I felt I was not flexible enough when the project format we chose was swapped and also I could have been a bit less tense with my group mates and offered to help more with the actual filming.