Question

A population of white-footed mice becomes severely overpopulated in a habitat that has been disturbed by human activity. Sometimes intrinsic factors cause the population to increase in mortality and lower reproduction rates to occur in reaction to the stress of overpopulation. Which of the following is an example of intrinsic population control?
A. Owl populations frequent the area more often because of increased hunting success.
B. Females undergo hormonal changes that delay sexual maturation and many individuals suffer depressed immune systems and die due to the stress of overpopulation.
C. Clumped dispersion of the population leads to increased spread of disease and parasites, resulting in a population crash.
D. All of the resources (food and shelter) are used up by overpopulation and much of the population dies of exposure and/or starvation.
E. Because the individuals are vulnerable they are more likely to die off if a drought or flood

Answer 1

Answer: B. Females undergo hormonal changes that delay sexual maturation and many individuals suffer depressed immune systems and die due to the stress of overpopulation.

Explanation:

Intrinsic factors of population control can be define as the limiting factor which is includes the negatively affected reproductive physiology and behavior of the mate organisms. The other parameters include health of the members, the age of reproductive maturity, the number of offsprings produced per reproductive attempt, and the number of reproductive events in the organism's lifetime.

The given situation is the example of intrinsic population control. B is the most appropriate option. As the females will delay in the sexual maturation this will delay in the process of reproduction thus the population size will not increase. Also the lack of immunity will lead to decline in the population size.