Question

You have caught 100 flies, marked them, and released them back in a greenhouse of area 100 m². assume the fly population doubles every 4 days; assume no flies die. after 12 days, you catch 400 flies and find that 10 out of them are marked. what is your estimate of the number of flies in the greenhouse at the start of your experiment?

a. 500
b. 800
c. 1,000
d. 4,000

Answer 1

D. 4,000

Explanation:

The formula using this method is: N = M x n / m

(N) is the total population size,

(M) is the number of individuals initially captured, marked, and released,

(n) is the total number of individuals captured in the second sample, and

(m) is the number of marked individuals in the second sample.

Given that (M = 100), (n = 400), and (m = 10), we can substitute these values into the formula to estimate (N):

N = 100 x 400/10 = 4,000