natural selection.
Natural selection is the process by which organisms that are best adapted to their environment are more likely to survive and reproduce, passing on their advantageous traits to future generations. In this case, the shorter-tailed mice in the prairies and fields would have an advantage in escaping predators in the new treeless environment created by the forest fire. Over time, the population of shorter-tailed mice would increase while the long-tailed mice would decrease, leading to the evolution of the species towards shorter tails in order to better survive in their altered habitat. This adaptation is a result of natural selection favoring traits that increase an organism's chance of survival and reproduction in a specific environment.
There are approximately 200 species of mice that live all over the world. Deer mice are a particular species of mice that prefer to live in forests, prairies, and fields. It has been observed that deer mice that live in trees tend to have longer tails because they use their tails for balance. Deer mice that live in prairies and fields tend to have shorter tails so they are less likely to be caught when running away from predators. If a forest fire occurred in an ecosystem eliminating the majority of the trees and short-tailed mice are naturally selected over long-tailed mice, the evolution of the mice can be primarily attributed to
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