Describe how a bottleneck event reduces genetic diversity in a population, and specifically how this has affected the current population of whooping cranes in the U.S
Well, a bottleneck reduces the number of organisms in a population or species down to a much smaller number than previously existed. In the case of the whooping crane, the species underwent a bottlenck event (although what it is I'm not sure), leaving us with less than 12 individual birds. The more widely accepted number of 6-8 birds has given rise to the several hundred whooping cranes alive today. Since only half a dozen sets of genes were used to create the several hundred, there is not much genetic variability.
