In 1992 Hurricane Andrew Struck Florida Causing Widespread Devastation

Essay

In 1992 Hurricane Andrew struck Florida causing widespread devastation. The eye of Hurricane Andrew passed directly over a site where scientists were studying the ecology of white-tailed deer. The deer had been radio-collared prior to Andrew's appearance, and the hurricane provided an opportunity to study the effects of an awesome storm on the deer. The investigators felt that the home ranges of the deer would change, but were unsure of the direction of the change. (The home range is the average area an animal occupies while foraging for food and defending its territory.) Home ranges of animals usually do not change much unless an area is under ecological stress. The home range data for a random sample of 18 white-tailed radio-collared deer are shown below in Table 1. The raw area of the home range for each of the deer is reported in hectares for the pre-hurricane year of 1992 and the post hurricane year of 1993. (A hectare is a metric unit of area equal to 2.471 acres.) ​
a) Using graphical display(s) of your choice show that the assumptions necessary for determining any change in the mean home ranges are plausible.
b) Construct a 95% confidence interval for the difference in means of the home ranges from before Andrew to after Andrew.
c) Do the data provide evidence of a change in the size of the home ranges after Hurricane Andrew? Provide statistical justification for your response.