Logical Reasoning

PT127 · S3 · Q7 Conservation officers justified

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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.

Apparent Paradox

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 population plummeted dramatically, and within two years plover could no longer be found on the island.

Evaluate

In their attempt to make things better, the conservation officers made it worse. The question is, what did they forget to consider? If removing the coyotes was bad for the plover population, then coyotes must have been good for the population. Since coyotes preyed on plover, there must be something else that coyotes did that benefited plover.

7.

Which one of the following would, if true, most help explain the phenomenon described above?

  1. Plover are ground-nesting birds, which

    Half Scope

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

    1% picked this

  2. Wild cat and plover populations

    Deepens the Paradox

    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.

    2% picked this

  3. Coyotes are not susceptible to

    Out of Scope

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

    2% picked this

  4. The wild cat population on

    Out of Scope

    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.

    1% picked this

  5. Correct

    The coyotes preyed mainly on

    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.

    94% picked this

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