verbal MGMAT test question II

[yamini]

In the past year, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of people killed by alligators in Florida. During this same time, there has been an increase in the development of new houses, golf courses, and shopping areas in former wilderness areas within the state. Therefore, the increase in fatal alligator attacks must have been caused by the increase in the number of humans living in the alligator’s habitat.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously calls into question the explanation above?
(a) Two years ago, a government initiative to reduce the alligator population size by destroying alligator eggs ended.

(b) An increase in fatal alligator attacks tends to make people more cautious around lakes, ponds, swamps and canals.
(c) The number of people killed by snake bites, spider bites and scorpion stings in Florida has held steady for many years.
(d) Many of the new state residents have moved to newly constructed areas near water that is suitable for habitation by alligators.
(e) The undeveloped areas of Florida have decreased in area by 5% in the past year.

Answer is A.

Why not answer C?
according to the reasoning conclusion is alligators bites are increased due to people occupation of the alligators land.
according to my knowledge we have to weaken this by telling people haven't occupied alligators land. We can prove this by telling other animals bites are not increased.

If we tell alligator eggs are destroyed then it means number of alligators are less and alligator bites should not increase. this will weakens premise.

Please clarify.

[RonPurewal]

Read choice A again: it tells you that the government STOPPED destroying alligator eggs (the initiative ENDED). This means a good chance that the alligator population is exploding again, which would explain the uptick in alligator 'incidents'.

The material in choice C is completely irrelevant to the issue (it has nothing to do with either human encroachment or alligators). It doesn't help to eliminate any alternative explanations for the phenomenon (such as the possibility of increases in the alligator population itself).

[guest]

But the explosion of the alligator population is just from the number of new hatchlings, 2 yrs old alligators can't FATALLY injure people, let alone responsible for a "dramatic increase in the number of people killed." Unless these hatchlings are teenage mutant ninja alligators as a result of them being in contact with toxic wastes when they were hatched.

[rfernandez]

I don't know how old alligators need to be to be able to kill a human being, but I do like the toxic waste theory.

In all seriousness, though, let's say that 2-year-old alligator toddlers can't kill people... you might attribute the increase in fatalities to older alligators protecting their young -- if there are more young around, then there's more to protect and therefore more likelihood to strike a meddling human being.

Still, I think all these considerations are unnecessary. Option A is the only one that provides a viable counter-premise. The others are out of scope.