|Question 7Verbal

Source Texts

Text
Text 1
In parts of Australia, the feral cat is a major predator of the ash-grey mouse. Researcher Danielle A. Risbey and colleagues found that when this predation pressure on ash-grey mice was temporarily reduced, their numbers significantly increased. This finding illustrates a foundational ecological principle: predators control prey population numbers.

Text 2
Michel Crête and Hélène Jolicoeur found that excluding wolves from a site in Quebec, Canada, where they typically prey on moose had no significant effect on moose abundance. Many other predation relief studies show an increase in prey abundance, but those studies often focus on small, rapidly reproducing prey, like birds, mice, and rabbits, rather than large, slowly reproducing prey, like moose, which could account for the difference between those results and Crête and Jolicoeur's results.
Based on the texts, the author of Text 2 would most likely agree with which statement about Risbey and colleagues' findings (Text 1)?
They may be partially attributable to physical characteristics of ash-grey mice that are not shared by moose.
A
They may have been different if the ratio of the body size of feral cats to that of ash-grey mice was greater than it is.
B
They may be partially explained by the fact that feral cats are smaller and reproduce more rapidly than wolves.
C
They may reflect a response that does not tend to be observed in prey species other than ash-grey mice.
D