An island has 12 fur seal rookeries​ (breeding places). To estimate the fur seal pup population in Rookery​ A, 6030 fur seal pups were tagged in early August. In late​ August, a sample of 800 pups was​ observed, and 321 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

Let x be the total number of fur seal pups in Rookery A.

We can set up the following proportion:

6030 (total number of tagged pups) / x (total number of pups) = 321 (number of tagged pups observed in sample) / 800 (total number of pups in sample)

Cross multiplying, we get:

6030 * 800 = 321 * x
4824000 = 321x
x = 4824000 / 321
x ≈ 15030

Therefore, the estimated total number of fur seal pups in Rookery A is approximately 15,030.