The relationship between predators and their prey within an ecosystem is often a quite complex array of offenses and defenses. Predation is the consumption of one living organism by another. Predators must have ways of finding, catching, and eating their prey (the offensive strategies), and prey organisms must have ways of avoiding or discouraging this activity (the defensive strategies). Predator-prey interactions are often simply thought of as one animal, a carnivore, catching and eating another animal, another carnivore or an herbivore. The interrelationships of predators and their prey is much more involved than this and encompasses all levels within an ecological food chain/web, from plant-herbivore systems to herbivore-carnivore systems to three-way interactions of interdependent plant-herbivore-carnivore systems.

Even though a plant may not be killed outright, removing leaves, stems, roots, bark, or the sap from plants will reduce its fitness and ultimately its ability to survive...