The Galapagos Origami Bird (Avis papyrus) was brought from South America and introduced to the desert-like Galapagos Islands. It feeds on the sparse berries and it drinks from limited natural springs. Only those birds that can successfully fly between the distant islands will be able to live long enough to breed. In this lab, you will breed several generations of these birds, where random mutations produce random variation, from which the environment selects for long distance flying. Look for changes in their population over several generations, measuring reproductive success by the maximum distances they can fly.
We will be working with hand-made "straw birds" (Avis papyrus), all built basically the same way (see page on Building Birds, with construction details and figure 2 showing the general appearance of the typical bird). Each generation of "birds" will face the same selective pressure: greater survival for flying the greatest distance. The individual in each generation that can fly the furthest (the "winner") will survive and produce 3 offspring. Those offspring will have various mutations occur in their DNA that may lead to new traits such as wider wings or longer bodies. The two birds that did not fly furthest (the non-winners in each generation) will die. (They can be used to build two of the three new birds of the winner's offspring).