Many daring vacationers who participate

[MiraA779]

Many daring vacationers who participate in guided boat tours on the Tarcoles River encounter native crocodiles lurking in the shallows, whose eyes and noses are peeking out from the surface of the murky water.

encounter native crocodiles lurking in the shallows, whose eyes and noses are peeking out
encountered native crocodiles lurking in the shallows, whose eyes and noses peek out
had encountered native crocodiles lurking in the shallows, whose eyes and noses peek out
encounter native crocodiles lurking in the shallows, with eyes and noses peeking out
encounter native crocodiles lurking in the shallows, with eyes and noses that are peeking out

I get that A,B and C are wrong based on the verb tense as below:
A: "are peeking out"
B: encountered - incorrect use of past tense which does not go with tense in rest of the sentence.
C. had encountered - incorrect usage of past participle

I have also read the explanations on forum by Stacey. My question is if A was worded as below:

"encounter native crocodiles lurking in the shallows, whose eyes and noses peek out"

would A have been a better choice? I am aware that the relative pronoun starting with whose is modifying the noun crocodile, can the above be ok as a case of a noun modifier modifying a slightly far-away noun?

[tim]

The "whose" in this sentence is being used as the possessive form of "which", and as such it attaches to the closest eligible noun. These words in particular do not enjoy the freedom to modify far away but still "attached" nouns the way other noun modifiers do. So no, this modification would not be correct.

[Maxmerkovitz]

Hi,

Can you elaborate on why you wouldn't need "that" (used in answer E)?

Thanks for your help!
Max