Why would a mimicry study of snakes in an area be presented as the percentage rather than the total number?

Question

Basically, I don't know why percentage would be better than a total number. I have some ideas but I'm not sure if they're right...

Answer 1

Honestly, I'm always suspicious about any study. So my first impression would be that maybe whoever did the study is showing their results in the form of percentages rather than the actual total numbers because it makes their findings seem more important. Like if someone did some sort of study and had only ten participants in the study, they could make their results seem more important by saying "90 percent of people prefer product A to product B."  Results from such a small sample size are pretty much irrelevant, in my opinion, so saying 90 percent of people sounds better than just saying 9 people.

Answer 2

Well, it would seem to me that depending on the size of the area it might be difficult to determine the total number, or that the study is speaking and providing data on a percentage of the total, but without more info, I'm unable to give you a more sound answer.