predation
/prɪˈdeɪʃ(ə)n
/noun [mass noun]
1The preying of one animal on others: an effective defence against predation...
- To avoid predation, animals show morphological defenses and behavioral modifications.
- Field collections of snakes often reveal nonrandom predation upon prey items of different size.
- They really only use their strong electric organ discharges for predation and defensive purposes.
2The action of attacking or plundering: the old story of male predation and female vulnerability [count noun]: the predations of would-be pirates...
- This became a necessity in most of the world's wine regions at the end of the 19th century to counter the predations of the phylloxera louse, native to America and to which most American vine species had therefore developed resistance.
- Our ruling classes are to some degree restrained in their predations.
- Two of the three planted last year look a bit sad - the predations of the hens and various sheep haven't helped.
Origin
Late 15th century (in the Latin sense): from Latin praedatio(n-) 'taking of booty', from the verb praedari 'seize as plunder', from praeda 'booty'. The zoological sense dates from the 1930s.