SOLUTION: In a capture-recapture study, a biologist tagged and released 320 deer. A month later she captured 50 deer, 30 of which had tags. About how many deer were in the population?

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Question 767423: In a capture-recapture study, a biologist tagged and released 320 deer. A month later she captured 50 deer, 30 of which had tags. About how many deer were in the population?

Answer by KMST(5328) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Of the 50 deer re-captured, 30 had tags.
That means that 30%2F50=3%2F5=0.6=60% of the re-captured deer had tags.

Assuming the same proportion of the entire deer population has tags, the 320 deer initially tagged and released would be 3%2F5 of the total number of deer.

If the entire deer population consists of x deer,
3%2F5=320%2Fx --> 3x=320%2A5 --> x=320%2A5%2F3
That calculates as 320%2A5%2F3=1600%2F3=533%261%2F3.
So the biologist will estimate it as x=533