The African cheetah population dwindled and nearly went extinct at the end of the Ice Age 10,000 years ago. As a result, cheetahs today display very little genetic diversity. This loss of alleles resulting from a rapid population decline can best be attributed to ________.
1) negative assortative mating
2) allopatric speciation
3) a genetic bottleneck
4) new mutations entering the gene pool
5) the effects of natural selection
