Question

You have a population of boa constrictors (snakes) on a Caribbean island that is 100 square miles and has a rich supply of lizard, bird, and mammal prey, and the island lacks boa constrictor predators (including humans). The boas are capable of reaching 16 feet in length in these conditions. Overall boa growth is strongly linked to habitat size and food availability. A hurricane comes along and moves 18 pregnant female boas to three different islands (6/island). • • Island A is 10 square miles, has no mammal or bird prey, has three sizeable human settlements, and is farmed extensively. Island B is 30 square miles, has a lot of mammal, bird, and lizard prey items and very few humans. Island C is 50 square miles, has limited bird prey, no mammal prey items, and moderate small lizard prey items. • After 100 years, on which of these three islands would you expect to find the largest boas? Explain your answer (1/2 pts)

Answer 1

The largest boas would be found on island C because there would be no human intervention on this particular island although the limited prey bird or mammal prey. These prey items can be increased over the time and there would be no predator.

However, on island A and B, though there is large amount of prey available, predators would reduce the number of boas.