Cottonmouth Litter Size. In the article “The Eastern Cottonmouth (Agkistrodon piscivorus) at the Northern Edge of Its Range” (Journal of Herpetology, Vol. 29, No. 3, pp. 391–398), C. Blem and L. Blem examined the reproductive characteristics of the eastern cottonmouth, a once widely distributed snake whose numbers have decreased recently due to encroachment by humans. A simple random sample of 44 female cottonmouths yielded the following data on number of young per litter.

5 12 7 7 6 8 12 9 7 4 9 6 12 7 5 6 10 3 10 8 8 12 5 6 10 11 3 8 4 5 7 6 11 7 6 8 8 14 8 7 11 7 5 4

a. Use the data to obtain a point estimate for the mean number of young per litter, μ, of all female eastern cottonmouths. (Note:

xi = 334.)

b. Is your point estimate in part

(a) likely to equal μ exactly? Explain your answer.

For Exercises 8.19–8.24, you may want to review Example 8.2, which begins on page 355.