What term describes the biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey?

The term "predation" specifically describes the biological interaction where one organism, known as the predator, actively hunts, kills, and consumes another organism, referred to as its prey. Predation is an important ecological relationship that helps regulate population sizes within ecosystems and shapes community structure. It is characterized by the predator benefiting from the interaction by obtaining nourishment, while the prey is negatively impacted as it loses its life in the process.

In contrast, the other terms cover different types of biological interactions. Competition refers to the struggle between organisms for the same limited resources, such as food, water, or space, and does not involve one organism being eaten by another. Symbiosis encompasses various interactions where two different species live closely together, which can be mutualistic, commensalistic, or parasitic in nature, but does not specifically imply predation. Parasitism, while it involves one organism benefiting at the expense of another, typically refers to a relationship where the parasite lives on or in the host without immediately killing it, unlike in predation, where the prey is consumed.