Everybody has certain things they like to either have or do in a certain way. You may like only Taber corn, or perhaps you like only Red Angus beef. In fact, you are making an artificial selection. In the last activity, you learned about natural selection. In this last activity in the lesson, you will learn about artificial selection.

Artificial selection is the process of selecting and breeding individuals with desirable traits to produce offspring that have these desired traits.

Taber corn has a unique taste. Some people will eat corn on the cob only if it is Taber corn.

 

 

@creativecommons

 

So, how can you produce a crop of plants similar to one that you like? It's simple and has been done for a long time. You take seeds from the plant that you desire and plant only those seeds. This should give you a crop that is similar to the original plant. Do that enough times and you have a field full of the crop that everybody desires!

In the cattle industry in Alberta, you will find many farms with either Red or Black Angus cattle. This is because they have the traits that provide us with high quality meat. Some ranchers prefer the polled angus cattle (no horns) to various horned breeds. The traits have been "selected" in the cattle over time so that they are what we see on the farm today. Of course, other breeds of cattle might have similar traits.

@creativecommons

   

@unsplash

 

There are many other examples of artificial selection. When you take a cutting from a plant and grow it, you have created a clone of the original plant. The new plant will look exactly like the original plant. You can take small cuttings from one citronella plant, for example, and grow them over the winter so they will be ready to keep the mosquitoes away in the spring.

Another type of artificial selection that you have seen all around you is in dogs. The many forms of dogs that exist today were all created through selective breeding from the dog's ancestor, the wolf. In a span of less than 10,000 years, breeders have changed traits and body shapes of dogs by artificial selection. According to the American Kennel Club, there are over 150 different dog breeds, from tiny Chihuahuas to giant Great Danes, but they are the same species (Canis familiaris) and all are descendants of wolves.

Breeders have been selecting certain characteristics to ensure that those characteristics made it into the next generation. That’s how different dog breeds are made. If a breeder wanted a dog with a curly coat, he would allow curly-coated dogs to breed and not allow them to breed with straight-coated dogs. In nature, the most well-adapted animals are more likely to survive and reproduce, but in dog breeding, the dogs with the desirable characteristics are allowed to reproduce by the breeders.

 

@creativecommons

Pomsky