Post on 15-Jan-2016
description
The story of the peppered moths
Once upon a time, there was a specie of moth
called the peppered moth.
The moths lived in the country of England, flying around and
doing moth things all day.
Of course, moths have predators. The
predators of the peppered moth are
birds. But enough new baby peppered moths were born every year
so that the birds didn’t eat all of them.
As it turns out, there were two different types of peppered moths. There are light colored moths and
dark colored moths.
For a long time, they lived together in England, happily flying and doing
moth things.
Then, one day, the humans invented machinery. The humans called this the
Industrial Revolution, and it produced lots of soot.
The soot clung to trees and buildings, making them
black.
The birds found it very easy to eat the light
colored peppered moths, but not so easy to eat
the dark colored peppered moths. The
dark colored peppered moths were
camouflaged against the dark buildings.
So, guess what happened to the light and dark
populations of the peppered moth?
There were many more dark colored peppered moths than
there were light colored peppered moths.
Industrial Revolution
Until, one day, when the
humans decided to clean the
buildings. They found cleaner ways to make things in their factories, and the buildings went back to being light
colored again.
Now, the birds ate
mostly dark colored
peppered moths
because the light ones
were camouflaged
better.
What do you think happened to the populations of
peppered moths now?
Now, the light colored peppered moths are much more common than the dark
colored peppered moths.
Industrial Revolution
Clean buildings
Evolution of Peppered Moth
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyRA807djLc
Animal Adaptations
(2 mins)Camouflage
(5 mins)
The End
This has been a production of the Peppered moth publishing company, owned and operated by the light and dark colored peppered moths of jolly old
England.
No, really, this is the end.
You can stop watching now.
The End