The size of northern fur seals provides a reliable indication of their population levels—the smaller the average body...

shunhe on December 27, 2019

Hi @Julie-V,

We know that the size of the northern fur seals is correlated with their population size, and that this average body size did not vary significantly over an 800-year period. This suggests to us that the average population size did not vary significantly over this same 800-year period, and something along these lines is what we should be looking for in the answer. (E) gives us this. It tells us that hunting by Native Americans did not significantly reduce the northern fur seal population over the same 800-year period. If (E) is false, then we would expect to see more variation in the body sizes of the seals, and so the facts provided in the stimulus suggest that (E) is true. Hope this helps!

Raheel on July 25 at 06:46PM

I thought E was wrong because the North Americans could have brought them to the brink of extinction, then stoped their efforts in seal hunting, and then the population increased again

Emil-Kunkin on August 11 at 11:16PM

If this had been the case then their weights would have varied with the population sizes.