Description

Animals are categorised into ecological groups depending on how they obtain or consume organic material, including carnivores, herbivores, omnivores, detritivores,[34] and parasites.[35] Interactions between animals form complex food webs. In carnivorous or omnivorous species, predation is a consumer-resource interaction where a predator feeds on another organism (called its prey).[36] Selective pressures imposed on one another lead to an evolutionary arms race between predator and prey, resulting in various anti-predator adaptations.[37][38] Almost all multicellular predators are animals.[39] Some consumers use multiple methods; for example, in parasitoid wasps, the larvae feed on the hosts\' living tissues, killing them in the process,[40] but the adults primarily consume nectar from flowers. Other animals may have very specific feeding behaviours, such as hawksbill sea turtles primarily eating sponges.