Predation and parasitism are similar in many ways. Both of these types of relationships between populations benefit one side (predator and parasite) and harm the other (prey and host). But predation has its own distinctive features from parasitism.
Predation is a relationship between living things in which a predator kills and eats a prey. Predators are not the only animals that hunt down, catch and kill the prey. In addition to hunters, there are animals whose food search is reduced to simple gathering. Usually insectivorous birds are engaged in gathering, which search for their prey in trees, in grass and other places where insects live. For a prey (animal or plant), predation is a way of finding food for themselves and their young. A distinctive feature of this kind of obtaining food is that it is not plants or carrion that serves as food, but a freshly killed animal. Some refer to predation and herbivorousness, because plants are living organisms. Without predation, the world of animals and nature as a whole would be different. This method of obtaining food regulates the number of herbivores, gets rid of sick and weak individuals, which improves the gene pool of living beings in the future. Of course, the hunter does not benefit his killed prey, but he does a service to this population as a whole, where the strongest, the most resilient and healthy survive. However, not only the hunting animal influences the population of its prey, but the prey also affects the population of its enemy. A fast and strong herbivore will easily escape from a weak predator. Accordingly, frail hunters will die of hunger, which will lead this species to the subsequent improvement of the offspring. This endless improvement in the gene pool of both sides of predation leads to the evolution of prey and prey. Herbivores have new devices to guard against the enemy. These can be thorns, carapace, skills of increased dexterity, strength and speed, poisonous glands, coloring frightening hunters, etc. Predators also evolve. The miners adapt to new means of protecting their prey, they become more physically developed, a camouflage color appears, the acuity of the sense organs increases, etc. This means that the predator reaches the prey level and their strengths are equal again. Then the cycle repeats over and over.