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Arctic deer live on islands in Canada's arctic regions.

They search for food by moving over ice from island to


island during the course of the year. Their habitat is limited to areas warm enough to sustain the plants on
which they feed and cold enough, at least some of the year, for the ice to cover the sea separating the islands,
allowing the deer to travel over it. Unfortunately, according to reports from local hunters, the deer populations
are declining. Since these reports coincide with recent global warming trends that have caused the sea ice to
melt, we can conclude that the purported decline in deer populations is the result of the deer's being unable to
follow their age-old migration patterns across the frozen sea.
Write a response in which you discuss what specific evidence is needed to evaluate the argument and explain
how the evidence would weaken or strengthen the argument.

The conclusion formed is that as the deer are being unable to follow their age-old migration patterns across the
frozen sea, their population is on a decline. The claim of decrease in population is supported by the reports
from local hunters. The reason provided is the recent global warming trends which have melted the sea ice.
However, more evidence is needed to form a conclusion based on the above argument.
First of all, there is a need to establish the fact that the deer habitat is self-sustaining. For example, there might
be a recent shortage of food which resulted in the decline of deer population. Also, the trend in the population
of deer in previous year is to be studied. It has to be established that the deer population was not
overpopulated due to decline in the number of their predators or any other reason. The resulting shortage of
food supply due to overpopulation thus explains the following decline in the population. This aspect has totally
been ignored by the author, which weakens his given argument.
Furthermore, the reports of the local hunters are not enough to confirm the decline in the deer population. A
thorough survey is needed to be carried out by the wildlife department to be sure of the findings. If these
reports would have been confirmed by the wildlife department then it would have strengthened the argument
further. The wildlife authority is also to keep a check on deer hunt if they are already not doing it.
The author then links these reports from local hunters with recent global warming trends. It is true that global
warming results in the melting of sea ice but it needs to be determined that whether the melting is taking place
in the area of deer migration patterns or not. Furthermore, the deer might not be able to follow their migration
patterns due to human intervention or any other reason. The data from the deer migration patterns needs to be
matched with the data from the melting of sea ice and any other factor which might hinder the migration. Only
then a conclusion can be formed which would weaken or strengthen this argument.
The argument is trying to pinpoint the cause of decline in deer populations by linking it with the recent global
warming trends. However, a thorough survey, both of deer habitat and the melting of sea ice, needs to be done
to have enough evidence to find the root cause.

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