Babblers, a bird species, live in large cooperative groups. Each member attempts to defend the group by sounding a lo...
tomgbeanon December 4, 2019
C
Why is C ruled out? If there are more than one types of babbler predator, then maybe the other predators have great eyesight and can discern a babbler from its' surroundings.
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For this type of question, we are tasked to select the answer choice that would allow two seemingly incompatible items/events to coexist.
In this case the two conflicting ideas are: Babblers are typically able to feed undetected by predators, yet they collectively emit a loud barking noise when they spot a predator, over a prolonged period of time. The issue here is that if they are typically able to go unnoticed, then why make their presence obvious by making loud noise?
Answer choice B provides a plausible reason in that the barks serve to intimidate their predators. In this case, the predators will likely leave the area altogether and the babblers can even more safely go about feeding without a unlucky encounter of being spotted and preyed upon.
On the other hand, answer choice C provides that there is more than one type of predator for babblers. The way that the argument is presented, there is no indication that would lead us to think otherwise in the first place. The argument speaks about predators in plural form without singling out any particular predator.
But let us imagine that we thought only one predator preyed upon babblers and now the answer choice is telling us that it is more than one predator. This doesn't change matters because we are told that, as it stands regularly, babblers are often undetected. It doesn't matter how many different types of predators there are, the confusion still stands that despite being regularly undetected, the babblers make their presence known.
I hope this helps, please let me know if you have any other questions.