Moose is the most important game animal in Alaska.

Nouns like moose and sheep, which do not change from their singular to plural form - https://grammarist.com/spelling/moose-vs-mooses/

We are referring to a group of animals here not any single animal out of a lot , hence " Moose are......." here refers to the animals ( as a whole ) and is perfectly fine here..

Hence, I prefer (B) over (A)..

Dear Mod
Could not find convincing answer why B is right option .Please help

Seems to be a flawed question - "moose" can be considered singular or plural - the animal species: singular OR all beings belonging to the species: plural. Dictionary says, even "mooses" is correct, though not used nowadays.

If we take moose to be singular then we call it as the most important game animal. Therefore, A is ok.

If, however, we take moose to be plural then we have to say' "moose are the most important game animals"
We should not mix up a plural subject with a singular object. B has problems

Daagh Sir, thank you for raising this issue. I am, in almost all occasions, on the same side as you are and have deep appreciation for your superb explanations, which are extremely helpful for aspiring GMAT candidates. But on this occasion, I beg to differ:

How would you consider the following sentence?
We are the new generation.

Dear Sayantan

The point I have made stems from the following GMAT example.

Iguanas have been an important food source in Latin America since prehistoric times, and it is still prized as a game animal by the campesinos, who typically cook the meat in a heavily spiced stew.

(A) it is still prized as a game animal
(B) it is still prized as game animals
(C) they are still prized as game animals
(D) they are still prized as being a game animal
(E) being still prized as a game animal

The correct answer is C and it says ' game animals' and not 'a game animal' because Iguanas is a plural subject. Choices D and E are rejected because the plural iguanas does not gel with 'a game animal' plus because of the ungrammatical'being'

Now coming to the example: Collective nouns such as generation can take singular or plural verbs depending on the notional reference in the speaker's or writer's mind. The reference in this case seems to be to the whole or all members of the new generation, as made out by the plural subject "We". Will we ever say we 'is' the new generation; or reversely --The new generation is we-- or I am the new generation( as if there is nobody else) or the word per se literally seems to be a singular but is used in a plural context.

However, we say that the new generation spends its money like water, because we have in mind the notion of the generation as single body. Such examples can be given for any of the collective nouns such as team, staff, or police and so on. Therefore the context, I believe is the ultimate driver of usage rather than the physical word. That is what I meant in my answer.

Also to Note: As a general rule, game or other animals are often referred to in the singular for the plural in a sporting context: "He shot six brace of pheasant", "Carruthers bagged a dozen tiger last year", <https://ask.metafilter.com/272460/What-animals-are-plural-and-singular>
As you have rightly pointed out, moose can be both singular or plural. Therefore, what is the error in taking moose as singular and go with A?

Moose is the most important game animal in Alaska.

Moose is the most important game animal in Alaska
Moose are the most important game animal in Alaska
Moose, the most important game animal in Alaska
Mooses are the most important game animal in Alaska
Moose have the most important game animal in Alaska

Next, is animal a collective noun at all? Can we use the word 'animal' to refer to a group of animals? It will be interesting to know.

Dear Daagh Sir,

many thanks for your kind and detailed explanation. As usual I am in complete agreement. Of course there is no doubt A is correct, but my point is that even B is correct:

Taking the GMAT example ( non-underlined part),
Iguanas have been an important food source. (Plural: Iguanas, singular: a food source).

we may say:
Moose are the most important game animal. (Plural: Moose, singular: the most important game animal.)

Thus plural subject with singular object cannot be the reason to eliminate B.

But as you questioned, we need to confirm whether "animal" can be used to refer to a group.

Dear mikemcgarry,

Please provide your inputs here. Two of our experts have contrasting views on it and as per my understanding both are correct.

Can we call this question a poor quality question?

Dear abhimahna,

I'm happy to respond.

I have tremendous respect for my brilliant colleagues daagh and sayantanc2k.

Let's take the issues with the word "moose" off the table for a moment. Even without those issues, this question is an embarrassment. It is as if the author knows the general format of the SC but has no idea of the standards that the GMAT maintains. The entire question is about the first few words--why is "most important game animal in Alaska" part of the underline? It doesn't change at all! The question isn't even pretending to have the scope of a GMAT SC question. As someone who writes practice questions, I would give this question a grade of F.

Now, as for the "moose" issue, I don't believe the GMAT would fool around with this. Most animal names have clear and distinct singular & plural forms. A subset, such as moose, sheep, fish, etc. are identical in the singular and plural. The GMAT might use one of these in the first half of the sentence, clearly indicating singular/plural in the non-underlined part, by means of the verb or pronouns, and then test singular/plural another part of the sentence. For example,
Fish in the XXX ocean, when they XX XX XX, is/are . . .
In other words, the GMAT would resolve the singular/plural ambiguity somewhere in the non-underlined part, so that we would know what to pick in the underlined part.

The word "animal" can be used as a collective noun in certain context, so it's fine to be equated to a plural subject.

In this question (B) is perfect. Choice (A) is correct, but awkward: it would be far more natural to use the definite article for the singular:
The moose is . . .
This is the only thing the question is testing, and it's too ambiguous to test. Choices (A) & (B) are basically both correct, and choices (C) & (D) & (E) are all so bad that no native English speaker would pick them. Was the author of the question a native speaker?? This question is an unmitigated disaster.

Let me know if there are any questions.
Mike

Thanks Mike.

I am not sure whether this question was posted by a native speaker.

I will regard this question as a poor quality question and either A or B could be correct here.

I selected A as correct answer.
The question is clearly debatable.