game wardens use experiments to help determine the number of deer in the state of North Carolina. Suppose 100 deer are caught, tagged, and released back into the wild. A month later 800 deer are caught with 16 found to have tags. Using this information, estimate the number of deer in North Carolina.

Answer 1

We can use the proportion of tagged deer to estimate the total number of deer in North Carolina:

100 tagged / unknown total population = 16 tagged / 800 caught

Simplifying this equation, we can cross-multiply to get:

100 tagged x 800 caught = 16 tagged x unknown total population

Dividing both sides by 16 tagged, we get:

100 tagged x 800 caught / 16 tagged = unknown total population

Simplifying this expression, we get:

5000 = unknown total population

Therefore, we can estimate that there are approximately 5000 deer in North Carolina.