Which finding from the study, if true, would most directly support th… | Verbal SAT Question

Carolina chickadees are cavity nesting birds that initiate nest building at the same time of year as golden paper wasps, a species that also nests in enclosed spaces. Researchers observed that both species will settle in nesting boxes, but birds and wasps are not often observed co-occupying boxes, leading to the hypothesis that the two species compete for nesting sites. To test this hypothesis, the researchers installed nesting boxes throughout a nature preserve in the US state of North Carolina, manipulated some of the boxes to exclude birds, and then monitored the boxes for two years. Not only was the hypothesis validated, there was also a clear indication of competitive advantage for birds.

Which finding from the study, if true, would most directly support the text’s characterization of the study’s results?

Even though overall usage of the nesting boxes by wasps and birds was high throughout the study, 24% of the manipulated boxes remained vacant each spring, while less than 4% of the unmanipulated nesting boxes remained vacant.

Nest initiation by either birds or wasps but not both was observed in more than 90% of the unmanipulated boxes, but nest initiation by wasps was observed in less than 50% of the manipulated boxes.

Wasps initiated nesting in manipulated boxes much more often than in unmanipulated boxes, and 80% of initial co-occupations of unmanipulated boxes resulted in abandonment by wasps but not by birds.

Although only 15 instances of co-occupation of unmanipulated boxes by wasps and birds were observed over the course of the study, in a majority of those instances, wasps were already occupying the boxes when birds initiated nesting in them.