Three raccoons currently live in a 100 square yard area of the forest. Five raccoons are the maximum number of raccoons that can live in that area. If five more raccoons move into this area, there will not be enough food, space, water, and other resources to support them all. Some raccoons will die or be forced to leave the area. As a result, the population size goes back down. In this example, three raccoons living in 100 square yard area of forest is an example of _________.

Question

population size

population density

carrying capacity

limiting factor

Answer 1

In this example, three raccoons living in a 100 square yard area of forest is an example of population density.

Population density refers to the number of individuals (in this case, raccoons) living in a specific area (100 square yards). The carrying capacity would refer to the maximum number of raccoons (which is five in this case) that the area can support given the available resources.