The population of giant pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) has had its population reduced due to habitat loss. There are only about 1000 to 2000 members left in the wild. What tragedy might be happening to the gene pool of the giant panda?

Answer: The bottle neck effect

Bottle neck effect

Explanation:

Any disaster could lead to sudden decrease in population of an organism thereby decreasing its gene pool. Such disasters triggers genetic drift commonly termed as bottleneck effect.

Due to decrease in the population, the frequency of occurrence of any specific trait reduces as the frequency of alleles responsible for any certain trait also reduces.

Since habitat loss will cause reduction in both space and resources for giant pandas and hence a large number of pandas will die thereby reducing the gene pool and hence frequency of an allele.