Final answer:
The ant colony starts with 5000 ants and decreases by 1/5 during April. Calculating 1/5 of the population gives us 1000 ants, which we subtract from the original number to find the new population of 4000 ants at the end of April.
Step-by-step explanation:
At the beginning of April, a colony of ants has a population of 5000, and the colony decreases by 1/5 during April. To calculate the new population after the decrease, we multiply the original population by 4/5 (which is the remaining portion after removing 1/5).
To find 1/5 of the population, we do the following calculation: 5000 divided by 5 equals 1000. This means the ant colony decreases by 1000 ants.
We then subtract that amount from the original population: 5000 minus 1000 equals 4000. Thus, at the end of April, the ant colony will have a population of 4000 ants.