OK, Predators hunt and eat other animals. The word predator sounds like a scientific type word. But, the victim of a predator, from what I can find, is just known as a “prey item”, which doesnt seem very scientific.
So the question is, what is a prey item called before it gets eaten? A predator is a predator before it actually makes a kill. What is a rabbit before it becomes lunch? I dont think it could be called a prey item because it has not yet become preyed upon.
I’m guessing the answers to this post will be “omnivore” or something like that but I’m not so sure that the two words jive. Omnivore describes the food the creature eats whereas predator is the way a creature obtains its food.
Just curious on your opionions on this stupid thought i’ve been kicking around.
I don’t know about prey item, but “prey” is pretty much the typical word used when referring to the critters that predators…er…prey upon. Note that an animal doesn’t actually have to be caught and/or eaten to be considered prey. Its species just has to be a potential food source to the predator species. Thus, mice may be prey to hawks, even though an individual mouse may never have to contend with clawed death from above.
Prey is a term that really only exists and makes sense in relation to its opposite number, ie predator. And the opposite also applies ot some degree. When you are discussing a rabbit it is a first order consumer or a herbivore or any number of other possible names. It only becomes prey when it is preyed upon. Rabbits aren’t prey as such, they can only be the prey of something else. Many of the world’s rabbits are never the prey of anything and so aren’t prey at all.
Similarly with predator. A lion is a carnivore, but it is not automatically a predator. Many lions make a good living by scavenger the kills of other animals. There is a tendency to refer to carnivores, especially mammals, as predators and the terms have become almost interchangable, but strictly speaking lions are not predators until they prey upon something, just as rabbits aren’t prey until they are preyed upon.
The actual answer to the question is that ‘prey’ is the correct scientific term for the victim of a predator.