= Predation
<Predation> is the consumption of <prey> by a <predator>, affecting the demographic rates of both populations.
In the usual animal-feeding sense, a <predator> kills and eats its <prey>. This distinguishes the interaction from feeding on already-dead material and from the prolonged exploitation of a living <host> in <parasitism>. In the illustrative <food web>, a small <fish> eating <zooplankton> is a <predator>; a large <fish> eating that small <fish> makes the same small <fish> its <prey>. These roles belong to a particular interaction. See https://openstax.org/books/biology-2e/pages/45-6-community-ecology[Clark, Douglas and Choi, Biology 2e, 45.6: predation and community interactions].
For a toy count, suppose 50 small <fish> begin a day and 8 are eaten by large <fish>. With births, other deaths and movement explicitly omitted, 42 small <fish> remain, and the fraction removed by <predation> is $8/50=0.16$. This measures removal of <prey>, not production of new <predators>. Food intake can support survival and reproduction, but eight meals do not imply eight new <predators>; <energy flow> and life-history details intervene. <Lotka-Volterra equations> provide one idealized account of such <population dynamics>, rather than a guarantee that every interacting pair must cycle.
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