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Discussion Board Assignment Essay In biology a species is a group of animals that is able to mate and produce healthy offspring. According to the biology online dictionary, population is a group of organisms of one species that interbreed and live in the same place at the same time. This discussion is based on the Nile crocodile which is found in Africa. Its species is biologically known as Crocodylas niloticus. It can grow to length of seven metres, and although it mainly feeds on larger mammals including human beings it can also feed on fish. If we take the year 2000 as our time zero then we might see a great change in the size of the body of the Nile crocodile in coming years. The trait that will most likely change in this species is the size of teeth. As at now, the Nile crocodile has got big teeth which are used to crush the large prey it catches. This means that the main source of food will be fish. Since most of fishes available are small in size then it means that the big teeth will be of no use. The crocodiles which are big in the size of their bodies are going to die since the food available will be less and only efficient for the ones which are small in size. As time goes by and due to unavailability of enough food, you will find that small sized crocodiles will have a higher chance of survival as a result of natural selection. Due to environmental changes and human encroachment, in future wild animals (prey) will be fewer. Human beings are increasingly destroying the wild animals’ habitats in Africa, thereby, reducing the population of the wild animals which are the main crocodiles’ prey. It is also worth to note that, environmental changes like global warming which is causing severe droughts in Africa is affecting the populations of the wild animals (crocodiles’ main prey). REFERENCE Biology online, retrieved on 31st, October, 2008, available at http://www. biology-online. org/dictionary/Population Species of crocodilians, retrieved on 31st, October, 2008, available at http://science. jrank. org/pages/1867/Crocodiles-Species-crocodilians. html