Approximently how many female offspring are produced by 3-4 yearold female ground squirrels?

(It's not 237...)

A. 91

B. 148

C. 237

D. 270

Which cohort of female Belsing's ground squirrels produces themost female young?

A. 1-2 year olds

B. 2-3 year olds

C. 3-4 year olds

D. 5-6 year olds

Interpret the Data: Population Demographics of Belding's GroundSquirrels

In this exercise, you will use a life table and a reproductivetable to estimate which age cohort in a population of femalesproduces the most female offspring. To make this estimate, you needinformation about the number of offspring produced per capitawithin that cohort and the number of individuals alive in thecohort.

You can make this estimate for Belding’s ground squirrels bymultiplying the number of females alive at the start of the year(column 2 in the Life Table for Belding's Ground Squirrels) by theaverage number of female offspring produced per female (column 5 inthe Reproductive Table for Belding's Ground Squirrels).

Life Table for Belding's Ground Squirrels(Spermophilus beldingi) at Tioga Pass, in the SierraNevada of California*
Age (years)	FEMALES
	Number Alive at Start of Year	Proportion Alive at Start of Year	Number of Deaths During Year	Death Rate†	Average Additional Life Expectancy (years)
0-1	337	1.000	207	0.61	1.33
1-2	252‡	0.386	125	0.50	1.56
2-3	127	0.197	60	0.47	1.60
3-4	67	0.106	32	0.48	1.59
4-5	35	0.054	16	0.46	1.59
5-6	19	0.029	10	0.53	1.50
6-7	9	0.014	4	0.44	1.61
7-8	5	0.008	1	0.20	1.50
8-9	4	0.006	3	0.75	0.75
9-10	1	0.002	1	1.00	0.50

Reproductive Table for Belding's GroundSquirrels at Tioga Pass
Age (years)	Proportion of Females Weaning a Litter	Mean Size of Litters (Males + Females)	Mean Number of Females in a Litter	Average Number of Female Offspring *
0-1	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00
1-2	0.65	3.30	1.65	1.07
2-3	0.92	4.05	2.03	1.87
3-4	0.90	4.90	2.45	2.21
4-5	0.95	5.45	2.73	2.59
5-6	1.00	4.15	2.08	2.08
6-7	1.00	3.40	1.70	1.70
7-8	1.00	3.85	1.93	1.93
8-9	1.00	3.85	1.93	1.93
9-10	1.00	3.15	1.58	1.58

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

Number of female offspring produced by a cohort number of females alive at the atart ... View the full answer