Logical ReasoningDifficulty: Easy

PT127 S3 Q7 Explanation

Conservation officers justified

A free, expert breakdown of this official LSAT Logical Reasoning question.

TopicsParadox

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Stimulus

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. After the coyotes were removed, however, the plover could no longer be found on the island.

What this question is testing

Paradox

Your task

Break the argument into its conclusion and evidence, then do exactly what the question stem asks with that structure.

Common trap

Answers that sound relevant to the topic but don't connect to the argument's actual reasoning.

Winning move

Predict what a right answer must do, then test each choice against the conclusion-evidence gap.

Reading along? Open the full official question in LawHub — we show a fragment here and keep the reasoning in our own words.

The question
7.

Which one of the following would, if true, most help explain the

Answer choices

  1. Half Scope1% picked this

    Plover are ground-nesting birds, which makes them easy prey

    This explains why plover are preyed on by coyotes, but does not explain why the population dropped once the coyotes were removed.

  2. Deepens the Paradox3% picked this

    Wild cat and plover populations tend to

    If coyotes prey on wild cats and the coyotes were removed, one would suspect the wild cats to fare better with a predator around. But the plover did not fare better with the departure of the coyotes. So one would have expected the plover population to increase.

  3. Out of Scope2% picked this

    Coyotes are not susceptible to any of the diseases that commonly infect plover

    This may protect coyotes, but it doesn’t explain why the plover disappeared from the island after the coyotes were removed.

  4. Out of Scope1% picked this

    The wild cat population on the island was once significantly larger than

    Unless it is known that wild cats play influence the population of plover, this doesn’t explain the plover’s plight once the coyotes were removed.

  5. Correct94% picked this

    The coyotes preyed mainly on wild cats, and wild cats prey

    Why this is right

    If coyotes preyed on wild cats, which prey on plover, there would be fewer predators for the plover to worry about.

    Skill tested: Paradox · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

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