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Predation is a biological process in which one creature, the predator, kills and consumes another, the prey. It’s part of a group of feeding behaviors that includes parasitism, micropredation (which doesn’t generally kill the host), and parasitoidism (which always does, eventually). It differs from scavenging on dead prey, though many predators do it, and it overlaps with herbivory because seed predators and destructive frugivores are both predators.

Predators may aggressively seek for and pursue prey, or they may wait for it, often invisibly. When a predator detects prey, it decides whether or not to attack it. Ambush or pursue predation may be used, sometimes after stalking the target. If the assault is successful, the predator kills the prey and consumes it after removing any inedible components such as the shell or spines.

Predators are equipped with acute senses like as vision, hearing, and smell, and are frequently highly specialized for hunting. Sharp claws or jaws are used by many predatory creatures, both vertebrate and invertebrate, to grab, kill, and tear up their prey. Stealth and aggressive imitation are two more adaptations that boost hunting effectiveness.

Predators have a strong selective influence on prey, thus they evolve antipredator adaptations such warning coloring, alarm cries, and other signals, camouflage, imitation of well-defended species, and protective spines and chemicals. Predator and prey are sometimes caught in an evolutionary arms race, a never-ending cycle of adaptations and counter-adaptations. Since at least the Cambrian epoch, predation has been a primary driver of evolution.

Predators kill and consume other species at the most basic level. Predation, on the other hand, is a broad notion that is defined differently in different situations and encompasses a wide range of feeding ways; and certain interactions that result in the death of the victim are not considered predation.

An ichneumon wasp, for example, deposits its eggs in or on its host; the eggs hatch into larvae, which consume the host and eventually kill it. This is referred to as parasitism by zoologists, despite the fact that parasites are not known to kill their hosts. A predator differs from a parasitoid in that it has a large number of victims that it captures throughout the course of its existence, whereas a parasitoid’s larva has just one, or at the very least has its food supply provided for it only once.

Other challenging and borderline instances exist. Fleas and mosquitoes eat the blood of live creatures, and aphids eat the sap of living plants, hence micropredators are little animals that, like predators, subsist solely on other species. However, because they seldom kill their hosts, they are now commonly referred to as parasites.

Animals that graze on phytoplankton or microbial mats are predators because they devour and kill their prey; however, herbivores that browse leaves are not predators since their prey survives the attack. Animals that consume seeds (seed predation or granivory) or eggs (egg predation) are ingesting full living creatures, making them predators by definition.

Scavengers, or species that solely consume dead organisms, are not predators, however many predators, such as jackals and hyenas, scavenge when the chance comes. Yellowjackets (social wasps) are both predators and scavengers of other insects among invertebrates.

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