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What is a species?

  • List species of animals that you may find in Alberta?

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  • Species: A group of organisms with similar structures (ex. bones and teeth) that can reproduce successfully together.

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  • Different species usually do not reproduce

under natural conditions and are said to be reproductively isolated.

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Reproductive Isolation

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  • Species are reproductively isolated due to several factors:

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Geography (Isolation)

      • Organisms are found if different habitats

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Temporal Isolation (Timing)

  • Different species flower or mate at different times of the year

American Toad (Bufo americanus)

Fowler’s Toad (Bufo fowleri)

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Resource Partitioning

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Behavioural

  • I don’t like the way that you are acting…

Blue-footed Booby (Sula nebouxii)

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Physiological or Genetic

  • Sperm and egg are incompatible

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Structural Incompatibility

  • The ‘key’ doesn’t fit the ‘lock’

Ground Beetles: Family: Carabidae

Bush Babies