#18 - In an island nature preserve, Common Eider nests

[Administrator]

Please post your questions below!

[DrewKing]

Good evening, I wish alittle assistance to better understand how to get to correct answer B. To begin and I hope I approached this question correctly. First, I read the prompt and recognized the question in the Resolve/Explain family. After reading thru the stimulas and then making my way to the answer choices, I was torn between B and E. The reason I ask is due to the prompt stating why “nests in wooden boxes”. Answer choice B pertains to woody vegetation which is 1 of 3 ways of concealment. Subsequently, wooden boxes does not align with “woody vegetation” stated in Answer choice B. I do not know where I’m going wrong or how to approach this prompt more effectively. Hope to hear back from you soon. Thank you very much!

[Adam Tyson]

Good question, DrewKing, and thanks for asking! The stimulus tells us a few things about these birds and their nesting habits. First, we learn that the nests are found in three different environments - in "highly concealing" (important description there) woody vegetation, in wooden boxes, and in open grasslands that "do not conceal nests" (another important description). We also learn that some of the birds like to use existing nests, rather than build new ones, and that they probably do that to avoid predation. That is, they are hoping to stay away from, or at least hidden from, predators.

It would make sense for those birds who want to avoid predators to go for the nests in the highly concealing vegetation, since that sounds like a pretty good place to hide, and the stimulus tells us that we would expect that to be the case, probably for that reason. But in fact these birds that like to reuse old nests don't do that - they go for the boxes instead. Why?

We can probably see quickly why they don't go for the nests in the open grasslands, since that won't help them avoid predators. The grasslands make no sense, since there is no concealment or protection there, so we probably don't need to worry about them in our answer choice. But why the boxes? Why not the nests concealed in the vegetation? Focus on what makes the boxes more attractive, or the vegetation less attractive. Either one would help us to better understand the choice made by these nest-recycling birds.

Answer choice B tells us why they are not selecting the nests in the vegetation. It's because they can't find them! If they cannot detect the nests, that would explain why they don't choose to use those nests. Since they cannot find the hidden nests in the vegetation, and the grasslands make no sense given their goals, it should now make sense that they are choosing to reuse the nests in the wooden boxes. It's not that they are better or more attractive than the ones in the vegetation, but that they are better than the only other options they can find, the ones out in the grasslands.

Answer E really doesn't tell us much about why the birds choose one type of next over another. All it does it tell us that predators are actually a problem, so that the birds wishing to avoid predators are being reasonable rather than just paranoid. Since this answer gives us no reason why the birds choose the boxes rather than the nests hidden in the vegetation, it doesn't resolve this paradox for us.

Your approach was good, up to a point. We want to know why they choose the boxes, sure, but we also want to know why they don't choose the hidden nests. Approach it from a comparative angle - what makes them choose the boxes instead of the nests hidden in the vegetation? When looked at that way, you don't have to focus just on the boxes, but on the relative relationship between the choices. That's not uncommon in a variety of LR questions - focus not on what makes one thing good, but what makes it better than another thing.

[kliu49]

Hello,

Would someone pls clarify what type of question this is?

Thank you,
Kat

[Rachael Wilkenfeld]

Hi Kat,

This is a Resolve the Paradox question. It asks us to figure out what would help explain the puzzling situation in the stimulus. They are in the strengthen family, so we use the answer choices to help the stimulus by providing an explanation of why the birds choose the wooden boxes.

Hope this helps!
Rachael

[laurentraster]

Could someone please explain why answer choice C is not correct?

[James Finch]

Hi Lauren,

(C) doesn't work because it doesn't provide the necessary explanation as to why the Eiders would choose one, less-concealed form of established nest over another, more-concealed one (ie the wooden boxes over the ones concealed in vegetation). This is what we need to know to answer the question, and (B) gives us exactly this by giving us a possible explanation (the ones in vegetation are harder to find). But as (C) would apply equally to all three types, as we know nothing about the tendency of the nest-builders to stay in the nest, it doesn't actually explain why the Eiders would choose the less-concealed boxes over the more-concealed ones hidden in vegetation.

Hope this helps!