Note: Enter your answer and show all the steps that you use to solve this problem in the space provided.
Researchers count 30 tagged zebras and 150 total zebras in an area of a game reserve. If researchers had previously tagged 80 total zebras at the game reserve, about how many total zebras live at the game reserve? Write a proportion to estimate the total population.
The proportion we can use is:
(tagged zebras)/(total zebras) = (previously tagged zebras)/(total population)
Plugging in the given values, we get:
30/150 = 80/x
To solve for x (the total population), we can cross-multiply and simplify:
30x = 80 * 150
30x = 12000
x = 400
Therefore, we estimate that there are about 400 total zebras living at the game reserve.