Question

An island has 12 fur seal rookeries​ (breeding places). To estimate the fur seal pup population in Rookery​ A, 4571 fur seal pups were tagged in early August. In late​ August, a sample of 1000 pups was​ observed, and 158 of these were found to have been previously tagged. Use a proportion to estimate the total number of fur seal pups in Rookery A.

Answer 1

First, calculate the proportion of tagged pups in the sample:

158 tagged pups / 1000 total pups = 0.158

Next, use this proportion to estimate the total number of pups in Rookery A:

4571 tagged pups / 0.158 = 28,917 fur seal pups in Rookery A.