- predation
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/pri day"sheuhn/, n.1. depredation; plundering.2. act of plundering or robbing.3. predatory behavior.4. a relation between animals in which one organism captures and feeds on others.[1425-75; late ME < L praedation- (s. of praedatio) a taking of booty, plundering, equiv. to praedat(us), ptp. of praedari to plunder, catch (see PREDATOR) + -ion-]
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Form of food getting in which one animal, the predator, eats an animal of another species, the prey, immediately after killing it or, in some cases, while it is still alive.Most predators are generalists; they eat a variety of prey species. Specialist predators, such as anteaters, eat only one or a few prey species. Cannibalism is a type of predation in which an animal eats another of its own species. Seed consumption is also considered predation because the entire living embryo of a plant is destroyed.* * *
in animal behaviour, the pursuit, capture, and killing of animals for food. Predatory animals may be solitary hunters, like the leopard, or they may be group hunters, like wolves.The senses of predators are adapted in a variety of ways to facilitate hunting behaviour. Visual acuity is great in raptors such as the red-tailed hawk, which soars on high searching for prey. Even on a dark night owls (owl) can hear, and focus on, the rustling sound and movement of a mouse. Many insect-eating bats (bat) hunt by echolocation, emitting a pulsed, high-frequency sound—in the manner of a ship's sonar—while flying; the sensory data thus gained guides them to their prey. A flock of white pelicans will cooperate to form a semicircle and, with much flapping of wings, drive fish into shallow water where they are easily captured.* * *
Universalium. 2010.
