Often the percent of an animal species in the wild that survive to breed again is lower following a successful breeding season. This is part of nature‘s self- regulation, tending to keep population stable. A study of merlins (small falcons) in northern Sweden observed the number of breeding pairs in an isolated area and the percent of makes (banded for identification) who returned the next breeding season. Here are the data for nine year.
Breeding pairs
28 29 29 29 30 32 33 38 38
Percent Returns
82 83 70 61 69 58 43 50 47
1.Is there a clear explanatory variable and response variable in this setting? If so, tell which is which, If not, explain why not.
2. How would you describe the form of the relationship?
3.do you expect the correlation to be positive or negative? Near + or not? Explain.
do a little research, then take a shot. What do you think?
1. In this setting, the breeding pairs can be considered as the explanatory variable, as they are the variable that may have an impact on the response variable. The percentage of male falcons returning the next breeding season is the response variable, as it is the variable that is influenced by the number of breeding pairs.
2. The form of the relationship between the number of breeding pairs and the percentage of male falcons returning can be described as a negative or inverse relationship. As the number of breeding pairs increases, the percentage of male falcons returning decreases.
3. Based on the information given, we would expect the correlation to be negative. This is because the question states that the percentage of male falcons returning is lower following a successful breeding season. Therefore, as the number of breeding pairs increases (which indicates a successful breeding season), we would expect the percentage of male falcons returning to be lower. The focus on the negative relationship implies that the correlation is near -1.