Kettlewell's experiment

 

Kettlewell's experiment

The first important experiments on the peppered moth were carried out by Bernard Kettlewell at Oxford University.  Kettlewell started an experiment where which moths were released into a large aviary, where they were fed on by great tits. His main experiment involved marking, releasing and recapturing marked moths. He found that in this polluted woodland typica moths were mainly preyed upon.  Kettlewell repeated the experiment in 1955 in some unpolluted woods in Dorset and again in the polluted woods in Birmingham. In 1956 he repeated the experiments and found similar results. In Birmingham birds ate most of the moths (75%), but in Dorset most of the dark moths (86%) were eaten.