Meaning “the act of preying or plundering.”

As in:

Predators may or may not kill their prey prior to feeding on them, but the act of predation always results in the (ecologically significant) death of the prey.

Source: Quote is from Wikipedia (only since MerriamWebster had no example sentence and it’s too early to come up with my own.)

Notice of the word was from that fascinating History Channel show last night, called Evolve. This episode dealt a lot with eyes and how they evolved differently in predators and prey.