According to the Hardy-Weinberg principle, a population in equilibrium will maintain the same allele frequency over many generations. For this to occur, however, several conditions must be met. One of these conditions is that no immigration or emigration can occur, or the allele frequency will change. Another condition is that the population must be large. A large population minimizes the effect of random fluctuation. If a small number of individuals in a population leaves and establishes a colony elsewhere, their combined alleles will establish the gene pool of the new colony. It is not likely, however, that allele frequencies in the new gene pool will be identical to those in the original gene pool. This is due to the fact that the new collection of alleles represents a random sample, which may not accurately represent the larger group from which is was taken. If a jar...