Question

A student collected and marked 66 ground beetles in a city park surrounded by urban property, and released them back into the park. Several days later, the student resampled the population and collected a total of 115 beetles (23 marked and 92 unmarked). What is the estimated size of the ground beetle population?

Answer 1

Answer 2

To estimate the size of the ground beetle population using the mark-recapture method, we can use the Lincoln-Petersen formula:

$$N=\frac{M\times C}{R}$$

Where:

• $N$ = estimated population size

• $M$ = number of marked individuals released initially (66)

• $C$ = total number of individuals captured in the second sample (115)

• $R$ = number of marked individuals recaptured (23)

Plugging in the values:

$$N=\frac{66\times 115}{23}$$$$N=\frac{7590}{23}$$$$N=330$$

Answer: The estimated size of the ground beetle population is 330 .