5) The range of the North American bobcat (Rufus lynx) extends from Mexico and California to Canada. In the Midwestern states, the bobcat's range was greatly reduced when land was converted to agriculture; bobcat numbers decreased. Which is the most plausible result of range restriction on the Midwestern bobcat populations?
A) higher fitness compared to Westem populations
B) lowered genetic similarity to Western populations
steady increase in the number of deleterious alleles
D) rapid speciation to fill newly available ecological niches