You are volunteering in a lab studying large eared bats. The ultimate goal of th

Question

You are volunteering in a lab studying large eared bats. The ultimate goal of the

research project is to see how the bats respond to local cleaning of caves—a

new effort to reduce the spread of white nose disease among bats. The graduate

student leading the project has asked you to estimate the long eared bat

population both before and after cave washing has occurred. Cave cleaning

efforts are scheduled to start in the summer. In February, you capture and mark

40 long eared bats with tags. In March, you capture 30 long eared bats, 25 of

which were already marked. What is your estimate of the starting population size

of long eared bats at your site?

Explanation / Answer

                P=(N1 X N2) /R

P    = total size of population

N1 = size of first sample (all marked)

N2 = size of second sample (recapture: some will be marked, some won’t)

R   = number of marked individuals recaptured in second sample

P = (40 X 30) / 25

= 1200 / 25

P = 48

Starting population size of long eared bats are 48.

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