Thanks for the question! So let’s take this bit by bit. First, say that all the snakes are female. What does that mean? It means we have four female snakes, one female lizard, and two male lizards (since that means both the males are lizards). OK, and now add to that the fact that each of the lizards is going to have a habitat to itself in this version of the game. Well, that means three of the habitats will have one animal each in them. So what has to go in the last two habitats? Well, they have at most two reptiles, and there are two habitats and we need to fit four animals into them, so the remaining two habitats are each going to have two female snakes. So we know the habitats will be: two will have two female snakes, and the remaining three will each have a lizard.
Well, we know that the female snakes can’t be next to the male lizards from the last rule. So can there be snakes in habitat 5? Sure. As long as the female lizard separates the male lizards and the female snakes, we’re good. So we could put the two male lizards in habitat 1 and 2, put the female lizard in habitat 3, and then put the two habitats of female snakes in habitats 4 and 5. And that doesn’t violate any of the rules, so snakes can go in habitat 5, and that’s incorrect.
You should also note that this game is symmetrical—there’s no real difference between habitats 1 and 5. So if habitat 5 wasn’t allowed, habitat 1 probably wouldn’t be either. But we can’t have two correct answer choices, so it’s unlikely that anything other than (C) would be right for this.
Hope this helps! Feel free to ask any other questions that you might have.
