PrepTest 117, Section 3, Question 12
Navigation in animals is defined as the animal's(59 more words not shown)
Which one of the following,(19 more words not shown)
- AThe polar bear(13 more words not shown)
- BThe site at(13 more words not shown)
- CThe route along(12 more words not shown)
- DPolar bears are(20 more words not shown)
- EPolar bears often(14 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Was the bear actually somewhere unfamiliar?
Getting home from 500 kilometers away sounds impressive. My first thought is that this is only one bear: perhaps it happened to head in the right direction. But there's a more direct question to ask before treating the trip as evidence of navigation. The passage defines navigation as finding a way from unfamiliar territory to a familiar point beyond the immediate range of the animal's senses.
Distance alone doesn't establish unfamiliarity. What if this bear had been through the release area many times? Perhaps its normal travels cover an enormous range. Then it could be following a familiar route home rather than finding its way out of a place it didn't know.
What we’re looking for
We're asked to undermine this evidence for the naturalists' claim. I'd look for a fact showing that the starting place was familiar. That would explain why this successful journey doesn't demonstrate the particular ability they claim. We wouldn't have to prove that polar bears can never navigate; we'd only need to show why this example doesn't establish that they can.
Working the answers
- A
Stopping and changing course doesn't show that the bear failed to navigate. Navigation need not be fast, direct, or free of mistakes. The bear ultimately got home. A criticizes the efficiency of the journey without establishing that it failed to meet the definition.
- BCorrect
The release site was on this bear's annual migration route. That gives us a reason to think the location was familiar to it. The bear could have recognized where it was and followed a route it already knew. Returning from far away then fails to demonstrate the key requirement: finding its way from unfamiliar territory.
- C
Snow and drifting ice describe the route's surface. They don't establish whether the bear knew the area or could find its way from unfamiliar territory. We aren't given a rule saying that travel over those surfaces requires or rules out navigation.
- D
Other mammals might find their way home from long distances too. The naturalists didn't claim polar bears are the only animals able to do this. Examples involving other species don't discredit the evidence about this bear.
- E
Smell matters to the definition, so don't dismiss this just because it concerns how the bear finds home. If the bear could directly smell its home territory from the release point, that would raise a real problem for calling this navigation.
But E doesn't say that happened. A general tendency to use smell doesn't establish that this bear could sense its destination from 500 kilometers away. B directly addresses the unfamiliarity of this release site; E leaves the needed connection to this particular journey unstated.
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