题目材料
Until recently, zoologists believed that all species of phocids (true seals), a pinniped family, use a different maternal strategy than do otariids (fur seals and sea lions), another pinniped family. Mother otariids use a foraging strategy. They acquire moderate energy stores in the form of blubber before arriving at breeding sites and then fast for 5 to 11 days after birth. Throughout the rest of the lactation (milk production) period, which lasts from 4 months to 3 years depending on the species, mother otariids alternately forage at sea, where they replenish their fat stores, and nurse their young at breeding sites. Zoologists had assumed that females of all phocid species, by contrast, use a fasting strategy in which mother phocids, having accumulated large energy stores before they arrive at breeding sites, fast throughout the entire lactation period, which lasts from 4 to 50 days depending on the species. However, recent studies on harbor seals, a phocid species, found that lactating females commenced foraging approximately 6 days after giving birth and on average made 7 foraging trips during the remainder of their 24-day lactation period.
The author of the passage mentions ringed seals most probably in order to
- Aprovide an example of a phocid species that fasts throughout its entire lactation period
- Bprovide an example of a phocid species whose maternal strategy is typical of phocid species
- Cprovide an example of a phocid species that may deplete an even higher proportion of its fat stores during lactation than harbor seals do
- Dsupport the assertion that harbor seals are smaller than many other phocids
- Esupport the assertion that harbor seals' maternal strategy may be related to their small size
显示答案
正确答案: E