An exponential function can either represent population growth or population decay
<h3>How to model the population</h3>The question is incomplete, as the resources to model the population of the Western Lowland Gorillas are not given.
However, the following is a general guide to solve the question.
An exponential function is represented as:
Where:
- (a) represent the initial value i.e. the initial population of the Western Lowland Gorillas
- (r) represents the rate at which the population increases or decreases.
- (x) represents the number of years since 2022
- (y) represents the population in x years
Given that the population of the Western Lowland Gorillas decreases, then the rate of the function would be 1 -r (i.e. an exponential decay)
Take for instance:
By comparison.
a = 2000 and 1 - r = 0.98
The above function can be used to model the population of the Western Lowland Gorillas
Read more about exponential functions at: