Researcher: This fall I returned to a research site to recover the armadillos I had tagged there the previous spring...

Mehran on May 26, 2016

@Mia6 let's take a look and see why (D) is not an assumption required by the researcher's argument.

Here is the argument:

P: Large majority of armadillos I recaptured were found within a few hundred yards of the location of their tagging last spring.

C: Armadillos do not move rapidly into new territories.

(D) states, "The tags identifying the armadillos cannot be removed by the armadillos, either by accident or deliberately."

This does not even strengthen so there is no way it can be the correct answer.

It is actually irrelevant since the researcher's argument is based on the armadillos he recaptured in the fall after tagging them last spring.

This means that the evidence the researcher is basing his conclusion on is tagged armadillos that still had the tags on when he returned and recaptured them in the fall.

Hope this helps! Please let us know if you have any other questions.