Researchers hypothesized that a North American fungus not only caused symptoms of white-nose syndrome (WNS) but also caused death. The results from their experiment are shown in the graph
below.
20
18
18 bats were "sham
injected and received
no fungus; none died
Number of individuals
16
14
12
5 10
B
6
4
18 bats were injected with
the North American
fungus; most died before
the end of the study
2
0
20
40
60 80
Day of study
100
120
18 bats were injected with
a closely related European
fungus; most died before
the end of the study
The closed circles mark the end of the
experiment for each group of bats.
Bats injected with European fungus have a lower mortality rate than "sham injected" bats
Based on this graph, which of the following hypotheses would be the MOST logical
hypothesis for further studies?