#3 - Deer mice normally do not travel far from their nests,

[mcassidy1]

Why is E wrong wouldn't predators chase the mice from the high density prey area to the original safer home?

[Jeremy Press]

Hi mcassidy1,

I agree that the predators referenced in answer choice E would suggest the deer mouse would leave the area it had been moved to. But we do not know whether that deer mouse would then find its way back to the original nest, or simply go somewhere else away from the predators (and make a new nest). Thus, answer choice E is indeterminate.

I hope this helps!

Jeremy

[lyn]

Can you please shed light on why B is correct? I chose A because I thought the mouse would be able to sense the change in his environment and at least find its way back to its preferred environment. Although now I'm realizing that still does not explain how it would have found its nest. But the rest of the answer choices seemed irrelevant at best.

[Paul Marsh]

Hi Lyn!

Answer choices (A), (C), and (E) all kind of function the same way - they all give us a reason why the new environment is less desirable for the deer mouse than its old environment was. So they all support that the deer mouse might want to leave the new environment. However, none of them help to overcome the issue presented by the first sentence of the stimulus, which tells us that deer mice are not generally capable of finding their way home. Only (B) overcomes that issue and resolves the paradox, by explaining why that particular mouse was able to locate his nest again (he followed the smoke). Hope that helps!

[lyn]

Yes it does! thanks!

[cutiepie]

Im confused on how B is the correct answer choice. The stimulus says "before moving it to an area over two kilometers away, the deer mouse found its way back." So before the researchers actually did anything the mouse found its way back on its own which is odd since mice do not travel far from their nest. So my prephase was that I am going to find an answer choice that basically helped the mouse find its way back (possibly something that gave hints to the mouse). When i read answer choice B it just didnt seem enough of a hint for me to choose it. I was iffy about all the answer choices but I felt like E was the best choice since that area mice get preyed on is a familiar area, so he would know how to get back eventually.

[KelseyWoods]

Hi cutiepie!

Careful with your reading here. The stimulus states: "Yet in one case, when researchers camped near a deer mouse nest and observed a young deer mouse for several weeks before moving it to an area over two kilometers away, the deer mouse found its way back to its nest near their camp in less than two days." So the researchers observed the deer mouse before they moved it 2 km away. After they moved it, the deer mouse found its way back.

The paradox here is that, generally, deer mice that have been moved more than a half kilometer away from their homes never find their way back home. So why was this one specific deer mouse able to find its way back home after being moved 2 km away?

Answer choice (B) provides us with that answer by saying it was the smell of the researchers' campfire that the deer mouse was able to follow back home.

Answer choice (E) states that: "Animals that prey on deer mice were common in the area to which the deer mouse was moved." That doesn't say that the area is familiar to the deer mouse. It says that the new area had a lot of animals that would want to eat the deer mouse. That might explain why the deer mouse would very much want to get out of that area. But it doesn't explain how the deer mouse would be able to find its way back to its original home, since, according to the stimulus, deer mice are usually unable to find their way back home.

Hope this helps!

Best,
Kelsey

[gabe_katz)=_]

Hi,
I chose D instead of B. My thought process was that we needed to find something that would differentiate this particular circumstance (where the deer mouse found its way back to the nest after being moved over half a kilometer away) from the norm (where a deer mouse would not find its way back to the nest after being moved over half a kilometer away). With that in mind, I thought that being moved in a small dark box would differentiate this circumstance from all others. Can you explain where I went wrong?

[Luke Haqq]

Hi gabe_katz!

You comment,

My thought process was that we needed to find something that would differentiate this particular circumstance (where the deer mouse found its way back to the nest after being moved over half a kilometer away) from the norm (where a deer mouse would not find its way back to the nest after being moved over half a kilometer away).

This seems good in terms of processing the question. There's a paradox about why a particular deer mouse didn't act in the same way that deer mice normally do. Thus you're right to be thinking about what could differentiate this mouse from what is normally to be expected.

If the researchers moved the mouse in a "small dark box," as (D) indicates, this wouldn't resolve the paradox. If anything, it only deepens the paradox. If this were true, it seems to be affirming that, for example, the mouse couldn't see where it was being transported, couldn't visualize landmarks along the way, etc. This answer choice leaves it all the more unclear how the mouse could know how to get back to its home even though transported over two kilometers away.

Answer choice (B) provides an explanation: the mouse could have followed the scent of smoke. As the stimulus tells us, the researchers camped right next to the mouse's home. If the researchers' campfire smoke drifted across a flat area in which the mouse was dropped off, as (B) describes, perhaps it could use the scent of smoke to navigate itself back. (B) thus provides a possible explanation for why this particular mouse behaved differently than how deer mice normally behave.