Comparing Exponential and Logistic Growth 4B

This experiment looks at the population growth of African Elephants (Loxodonta africana) in Addo National Park in South Africa over the span of 23 years. Below you will find a graph of my table (at the top Observed Numb is meant to say Observed Number, but I cut it too close on accident) and my graphs done in Excel. Special thanks to the wonderful Dr. Jennifer Shafer who taught me how to effectively use Excel graphs and taught me the importance of color choice for graphs.

1. Darwin was only mildly conservative in his population estimates. The population did triple but at a slower growth rate.

2. As a park manager I would like to institute some sort of controlled breeding since the Addo Elephants may someday reach their carrying capacity. This can be a problem since a park has limited space and resources. What I would like to do is encourage a genetic study of the Addo elephants so that I, as a park manager, can keep track of who is breeding and their genetics, this way I can manage breedings for the most genetic biodiversity and still have a breeding population of elephants. If the population got too out of control I would not encourage culling the population nor would I encourage a chemical birth control method. I think a better means of population control, that still encourages genetic diversity, would be translocating some elephants into different parks that have limited genetic diversity.

3. To determine a more realistic value for K I would first look at the amount of resources (food, space, and water) available in the park. Then I would consider how much of each resource does one elephant need. This would give me a better idea of the carrying capacity of elephants in my park.

4. Some of the factors that have been limiting population growth in humans since 1978 are medicine, environmentalism, and agriculture. Effective means of birth control, longer life spans due to medicine (less adult death and less infant death), and advanced medicine for diseases that are harmful to people have altered "r" and increased "K". Environmentalism also plays a big role. I believe many people have noticed the rapid population growth of the human race and are abstaining from making their own offspring and instead  adopting, or abstaining from children all together. I also believe that religion has always had an effect on the population, until recently when the Pope condoned the use of contraceptives. Finally, the recent ability for huge large scale farms increase the availability of food, with the increase of food comes an increase in population. I believe that we have only postponed Malthus' fears.

5. I have no clue what the global carrying capacity is for the human race. I believe at the rate we are reproducing we will not have enough resources to sustain ourselves and keep the planet healthy. I try to do my part in limiting my resources as much as possible. I also believe the human race will colonize the moon before our resources run out.