The act and result of preying is called predation . This verb (prey) has two meanings: it can refer to looting violently and causing destruction or, expressed in an animal species, to hunting for subsistence .
The idea of predation, which comes from the late Latin depraedatio , appears in different areas. In an armed conflict, for example , depredation consists of robberies and looting carried out by one of the sides.
The concept of predation is also used with reference to the overexploitation of a natural resource . This hinders the regeneration of the resource in question, which does not have time to recover or reproduce, and therefore, its subsistence is threatened.
Suppose that a fleet of large boats fishes in a certain area without any type of control. These boats capture enormous quantities of animals, including juvenile specimens. The artisanal fishermen of the region, faced with this situation, warn about this predation that could leave the sea without fish.
In the field of ecology and zoology , predation is understood as a biological interaction . In it, one animal (the predator ) catches another (the prey ) to feed.
It is worth mentioning that there is a type of predation known as herbivory , in which the prey is not an animal but a plant.
It is important to mention that the same predator can have several prey . Also that an animal can be the prey of different predators. Furthermore, it is common for a species to be prey in one relationship and predator in another.
Adaptations , certain traits that benefit them in this endless cycle, can be seen in both prey and predators. It can be a certain coloration, agility or strength, as long as these characteristics have arisen as a result of the dynamics of predation and that they point towards balance: if the predators did not have to exert themselves in the process, then the population of The dams would fall precipitously and the planet would be negatively affected.
As a curious fact , the action of sucking the blood of another individual carried out by mosquitoes is also a form of predation. This is because the total consumption of the prey is not a requirement, but it is enough to take a small part of its organism to feed for it to be considered predation.
With predation, the predator eats and obtains energy from its prey. Therefore, the predator benefits from the bond and the prey is harmed. This happens because the objective is bigger than the members themselves: natural balance. Whether we like it or not, we are parts of a system on which we depend and have not created. Each of our actions has an impact on it and returns to us as a consequence.
Predation should not be compared to animal exploitation , an invention of human beings to feed their species with individuals that they cannot hunt naturally. The differences are many and lead to absolutely opposite results. For example, while hunting animals contribute to the nutrition of the earth by leaving the remains of their prey, humans destroy more of the soil every day with the techniques necessary to maintain animal exploitation.
One of the curiosities that best reflects the lack of contact that most people have with this system of food and clothing production is that we consider a hunting scene starring a feline and a horse to be violent , but a purchase of trays of meat, eggs, milk or leather shoes. We are impressed by a lion eating a zebra, but we delight in a plate of roast meat.