Tagged
*2008: 40
*2009: 16
*2010: 8
total caught
*2009: 50
*2010: 30
Now, you can compare them. Like so, let's use the first one. You can compare the ratio of 16/40 = 50 / x
where x is the total population
so basically the proportion above represents that 16 of the 40 tagged were caught and it relates proportionately to the number of turtles caught out of the entire population of turtles that were currently there in 2009.
Now, you can cross multiply to get this...
16/40= 50/x
16x = 2000
then divide by 16
x = 125
125 represents the total population
Set up the other proportion just likes this and you should be able to get the population for 2010 as well. There are other ways to set it up though if you want to experiment on your own.
Hope this helped.
