Frog Wars 2

DAY 2: ATTACK OF THE KILLER BIRDS

Your frog may have survived yesterdays
challenges, but today a new threat has arisen. A new
predator, an exotic species, has landed on the island. This
new predator is a hawk like bird with good eyesight. It has
a difficult time seeing spotted frogs because they are so
well camouflaged. The frogs without spots however
standout greatly and due to this birds amazing accuracy for
attacking prey once it finds it these frogs are often eaten
the moment they leave the pond.

2 Frog Traits:

Size of Frog
Spots

small = G
plain = R

giant = g
spotted = r

Start with the same frog from Frog Wars 1. Follow the same protocols from Frog Wars 1 and document the
populations below. However, when you roll the dice, if you are spotted you get to live if you role a 1-5 and a 6
you die. If you are plain, if you roll a 1-5 you die and you only live with a 6.
Generation/
Mating Season

Your competing
frogs genotype
and phenotype

Did your frog

survive?

Giant,
Spots

Class Data
Small,
Small, No
Spots
Spots

Giant, No
Spots

Total
Amount of
Frogs
F

4
5
6
1. If this population of frogs continued to reproduce for thousands of years how would the population of frogs change
over time in terms of both size and pattern? Why?
What is your Claim?

What is your Evidence?

Explain your Reasoning that connects your evidence to your claim.

2. Selection pressures have been placed on these frogs since there are reasons they are not surviving. How will the
allele frequency change in this gene pool? The _____ alleles will increase and the ______ alleles will decrease.

Graph the results of each phenotype of frog- Start with generation 1 from Frog Wars 1 and graph through generation 6.
You will use a different symbol for each type of frog phenotype and draw in a line of fit (or line of regression) for each
phenotype to observe the trend in the population over time. Be sure to label your axis, fill in the key for each type of frog
and give a title to your graph. (graph on the start and the spring each year)

Key:

3.

Suppose a brand new high school was built right in the middle of two ponds in a forested area serving as the
home for our population of frogs. The pond on the north end of the school remained surrounded by trees and
therefore relatively unharmed. The trees surrounding the pond on the south end however were cut down to
expose the pond so that the school would have the view of a nice natural pond.
The problem with this is that without all of the trees to hold the soil in place around the ponds, the land has
gradually eroded and filled in the pond with sand so that it is no longer lined with rocks and stones, but with sand.
The frogs on the south side were then completely isolated from the frogs on the north. Some may have tried to
make the long journey around the school and over the hot asphalt of the parking lots, but most were picked off
along the way by herons and other birds.
The population that remained on the south side however now had a completely new environment to live in.
There was still competition for food, if not more competition, so the better jumpers still have an advantage.
However, it is still not an advantage to be spotted. Since the pond is now lined with sand, the frogs without spots
will blend in more while the spotted frogs will stand out more to predators and will be picked off much more
frequently.
a. After thousands of years, how will the population of frogs on the south end look? How will the allele
frequency change in that gene pool? Why?
b. A scientist comes along and tries to mate the frogs on the south end with the frogs on the north end. The
non-spotted females from the south however are no longer attracted to the spotted males from the north
and they refuse to mate. Are the frogs from the north and the frogs from the south still the sam e
species? Why or why not?
c.

Why is it important to have variation in a population? (Why is it better that we are not all the same?)

4. This lab is intended to show natural selection.

For each of the claims below that support natural selection, give the evidence from the lab and your reasoning
that connects the claim to your evidence:
a. It is tough to survive in the world.

b. Only those with traits that are suited for survival, live long enough to reproduce.