Question

suppose that you have a 14 ha reserve with 17 aardvarks living on it. being the aardvark lover that you are, you want to increase their numbers until you have 45 aardvarks. how much more land do you need to add to your reserve?

Answer 1

To increase the aardvark population from 17 to 45 on a reserve, one would need approximately 23.06 hectares of additional land assuming a direct proportion between land area and aardvark population.

Step-by-step explanation:

The question pertains to calculating the additional land required to support an increased population of aardvarks from 17 to 45. This question involves the concept that the number of species present tends to increase with the size of habitat (based on the ecological principle of carrying capacity). Assuming a direct proportion between land area and aardvark population, we can calculate the additional land needed as follows:

Currently, a 14 ha (hectares) reserve supports 17 aardvarks. To find out the land needed per aardvark, we divide:

14 ha / 17 aardvarks = 0.8235 ha/aardvark

To support 45 aardvarks, we can multiply:

0.8235 ha/aardvark * 45 aardvarks = 37.0575 ha

This would be the total land required to sustain 45 aardvarks. Since we already have 14 ha, the additional land needed would be:

37.0575 ha - 14 ha = 23.0575 ha

Therefore, approximately 23.06 ha of additional land would be needed.