SAT Cross-Text Connections Question

## Text 1 In parts of New Zealand, the stoat is a major predator of the house mouse. Researcher G.L.Blackwell and colleagues found that when this predation pressure on house mice was temporarily reduced, their numbers significantly increased. This finding illustrates a foundational ecological principle: predators control prey population numbers. ## Text 2 William D. Gulsby and colleagues found that excluding coyotes from a site in the state of Georgia where they typically prey on white-tailed deer had no significant effect on white-tailed deer 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 frogs, rather than large, slowly reproducing prey, like white-tailed deer, which could account for the difference between those results and Gulsby and colleagues' results. Based on the texts, the author of Text 2 would most likely agree with which statement about the "principle" mentioned in Text 1?