Conservation officers justified their decision to remove a pack of ten coyotes from a small island by claiming that the coyotes, which preyed on wild cats and plover, were decimating the plover population and would soon wipe it out. █████ ███ ███████ ████ ████████ ████████ ███ ██████ ██████████ █████████ █████████████ ███ ██████ ███ █████ ██████ █████ ██ ██████ ██ █████ ██ ███ ███████
Coyotes were removed from an island because they were decimating the plover population, but the plover population was wiped out soon after the coyotes were removed.
The right answer will be a hypothesis that explains why removing the coyotes actually hurt the plover population. Since the coyotes preyed on wild cats, as well, the answer may point to a proliferation of other plover predators on the island.
Which one of the following ██████ ██ █████ ████ ████ ███████ ███ ██████████ █████████ ██████
Plover are ground-nesting ██████ █████ █████ ████ ████ ████ ███ ████████
This doesn’t explain why removing the coyotes harmed the plover population. If anything, this suggests removing the coyotes would’ve helped the plover.
Wild cat and ██████ ███████████ ████ ██ █████████ █████████
We don’t know what happened to the wild cat population once the coyotes were removed. Even if the wild cat population also plummeted, this still doesn't tell us why removing coyotes would have that effect.
Coyotes are not ███████████ ██ ███ ██ ███ ████████ ████ ████████ ██████ ██████ ██ ████ █████
The coyotes are gone, and we need to know why that negatively affected the plover. Nothing in the stimulus suggests that disease was a factor in the plover decline, so this isn't helpful.
The wild cat ██████████ ██ ███ ██████ ███ ████ █████████████ ██████ ████ ██ ██ ██████████
We don’t know what a shrinking wild cat population has to do with plover. This doesn’t give us enough information.
The coyotes preyed ██████ ██ ████ █████ ███ ████ ████ ████ ██ ███████
Once the coyotes were gone, wild cats ran rampant on the island and ate all the plover. This explains why removing the coyotes harmed the plover population—even though the coyotes were a threat, they were preventing a greater threat.
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