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Biology vocabulary · Ecology and Ecosystems

Predator

Meaning in biology, with examples

/ˈpredətər/nounCore term

In biology, predator means: An animal that hunts, kills and eats other animals. The animal that it hunts is called its prey.

In Turkish: avcı, yırtıcı, predatör

How it is used

Usually paired with prey: predator-prey relationships, predator-prey cycles. Top or apex predators, such as wolves and sharks, have few or no natural predators. The verb is prey on: owls prey on mice. The process is called predation.

Example sentences

  1. When the number of predators falls, the prey population often grows quickly.

  2. Wolves are the main predator of deer in this forest.

Common collocations

  • predator and prey
  • top predator
  • natural predator
  • predator-prey relationship
  • food chainA simple sequence showing what eats what in an ecosystem. It starts with a producer such as a plant and passes energy from one consumer to the next.
  • food webA network of connected food chains that shows all the feeding relationships in an ecosystem, since most organisms eat, and are eaten by, more than one species.
  • populationAll the members of one species that live in the same area at the same time and can breed with each other.
  • ecosystemA community of living things together with the non-living parts of their environment, such as water, soil and climate, all interacting as one system.

More terms: Ecology and Ecosystems

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