Self-study
Shelton: The recent sharp decline in the number of moose in this region was caused by a large increase in the white-tailed deer population. █████ ███ ████ ██ ███ ███████ ████ █████ ███ █████ ████ █████ █ █████████ ████████ ████ ███ ██ ███████████ ██ ███ █████ ██████ ███████
██████ ███ ███████████ ██████ ███ ████ ███████████ █ █████ ████████ ██ ███ ████████████ ████ ███████████ ███ ███ █████ ██████████ █████ ███ ████████ ███████
"Surprising" Phenomenon
In one region, an increased white-tailed deer population spread parasites which caused a decline in the moose population, but an increase in deer didn’t produce the same decline in the neighboring region.
Objective
The right answer will be a hypothesis that explains a key difference between the two regions in question. That difference will likely result in the first region being more susceptible to parasite transfer from deer to moose compared to the neighboring region.
13.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ █████ ██ ███████ ███ ████████ ████████ ███████ █████████ ███ ███████ ███████████
a
The region with ███ █████████ █████ ██████████ ██ ██████ ████ ███ ███████████ ██████ ████ ████ █████ ███ ████████ ███ ████ █████ ████ ███ ███████████ ███████
We don't have any reason to think that the size of the regions affects moose vulnerability to parasites, so this is irrelevant. It just doesn’t explain why the neighboring region’s moose didn’t experience a decline.
b
The region with ███ █████████ █████ ██████████ ████████ ██████ ██ ████████████ █████ ████████ ███ ███ ███████ ██ █████ ███████ ██ ███ ███████████ ██████ ██ █████████
How would poorer-quality habitat help the moose in the neighboring region? This doesn't help us explain why the neighboring population didn’t suffer the same problems after an increase in white-tailed deer.
c
Wolf packs in ███ ██████ ████ ███ █████████ █████ ██████████ █████████ ████ ██ ████ █████ ███ █████ ███ ██ ███ ███████████ ██████ ███ ████ █████ ████ ██ █ █████ ███████ ██ ████████
For this to be helpful, we would need to know much more about how wolf behavior affects the interaction of deer and moose in each region. We don’t have enough information for this to resolve the conflict.
d
There is a █████ ███████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ █████ ███ ████████████ ████ ██ ███ ██████ ████ ███ █████████ █████ ███████████ ███ ███ ██ ███ ███████████ ███████
In the first region, the parasite transfer is occurring because deer and moose share the same spaces. In the neighboring region, moose and deer live in separate areas and rarely interact. This explains why the moose in the neighboring region aren’t being infected.
e
Moose require a ███████ ████ ████ ██████ █████ ███████████ ███████ ████████████ ████ █████ ██████ ██ ███ ██████ █████ ████ ████████████ █████ ███████████
We have no idea if either region has human settlement.