depredation

From Middle French déprédation, from Latin depraedatio.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌdɛpɹəˈdeɪʃən/

depredation (countable and uncountable, plural depredations)

1. An act of consuming agricultural resources (crops, livestock), especially as plunder.
   • 1983, Richard Ellis, The Book of Sharks, Knopf, →ISBN, page 61:

     An animal that produces only two to four young per year cannot suffer vast depredations on the adult population without drastic effects.

   • 2003, The Living Elephants: Evolutionary Ecology, Behavior, and Conservation, by R. Sukumar, page 299:

     Depredation of cultivated crops by elephants is widespread in both Africa and Asia.

2. A raid or predatory attack.

   Union Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman had long known that his fragile supply and communication lines through Tennessee were in serious jeopardy because of depredations by Forrest's cavalry raids. (Battle of Brice's Crossroads)

• predation
• predator
• prey