50. Population Ecology

In some cases, a population can exceed its carrying capacity for a brief period of time. In a population of dragonflies that approaches its carrying capacity, many females use the last of their energy reserves to reproduce. As a result, the population size reaches 675 dragonflies, but the estimated carrying capacity ($K$) of the area is 550 dragonflies. The $r_{\max }$ value for this population is 0.5. Calculate the rate of population growth (dN/dt) & the per capita rate of growth, r(1 – N/k).

A population of spotted hyenas in a South African National Park currently has 87 individuals. The carrying capacity for spotted hyenas in the park is estimated to be 125 hyenas & the intrinsic growth rate ($r$) is 0.25 hyenas/year/hyena. What is the instantaneous rate of population growth of the spotted hyena population?