There were once more than 1 million elephants in West Africa. Now, however, the elephant population has dwindled to 19,000. Each year 17.8% of West Africa elephants die or are killed by hunters. At the same time, elephant births are decreasing by 13% per year. Considering that 47 elephants were born in the wild this year, estimate the elephant population of West Africa 27 years from now. You may use technology to calculate the answer.
A) 334 elephants
B) 111 elephants
C) 116 elephants
D) 457 elephants
E) 96 elephants

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

To solve the problem, we can use the following formula: 
P = (I - E) * R ^ t + B 
where P is the future population, I is the initial population, E is the percentage of elephants that die or are killed each year, R is the percentage of decrease in elephant births each year ( expressed as a decimal), t is the number of years, and B is the number of elephant births per year. 
Plugging in the given values, we get: 
P = (19,000) * (1 - 0.178 - 0.13) ^ 27 + 47 
P = (19,000) * (0.692) ^ 27 + 47 
P = (19,000) * 0.016 + 47 
P = 111 
Therefore, the estimated elephant population of West Africa 27 years from now is 111, which corresponds to choice B.

There Were Once More Than 1 Million Elephants in West