depredation

From Middle French déprédation, from Latin depraedatio.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌdɛpɹəˈdeɪʃən/

• Audio (Southern England)

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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)

   • 2022 November 30, Paul Bigland, “Destination Oban: a Sunday in Scotland”, in RAIL, number 971, page 74:

     Despite losing its overall roof to the depredations of the Luftwaffe in the Second World War, the main building survives in all its Gothic glory.

• predation
• predator
• prey