The Predator-Prey Relationship

The Predator-Prey Relationship is a relationship between two Chimera where their Complexes are naturally opposed to each other where one complex, the predator, has a greater advantage to other complex, the prey, normally having abilities that are counteractive or negate the abilities of the other complex these relationships are set by the "Trophic Levels" also known as food chains. Within these food chains anything that consumers another consumer is a predator and any consumer that is consumed by another consumer is prey.

A food chain is a set of connections starting from an autotroph, more commonly referred to as the producer, which is an organism that can produce it's own nutrients without the consumption of another organic creature. In many food chains the producer is plant such as grass or leaves but can also be organisms such as fungi. The creature that eats the producer is known as the primary consumer, the creature that eats the primary consumer is the secondary consumer and the creature that eats the secondary consumer is known as the tertiary consumer. Many food chains end at the tertiary consumer with only a small amount having higher rankings of consumers, the consumer at the top is known as the Apex Predator.

A Chimera with a predator complex has a much greater advantage over Chimera with a prey complex, this normally means that those with a predator complex will win in a direct fight. However prey complex normally have abilities that allow them to escape a predator complex meanwhile predator complex's have abilities to counteract these escapes. This leads into a concept known as the "Evolutionary Arms race" between Predator and Prey. This concept boils down to reactive evolution, when the prey evolves a way to escape their predator successfully then the predator will evolve a way to counter act this new advantage. An example of this can be in the arms race between Chiroptera (Bats) and their prey such as Lepidoptera (Moths), Bats have evolved the ability to locate prey with echo-location and in turn moths learned how to detect these echo-location waves and either run away or send sonic waves back to confuse the bat.

When a Chimera interacts with a Predator Complex in combat it triggers a deep primal fear in them and it's very hard to overcome. This mixture of fear and disadvantage in combat normally results in the Prey Complex losing the vast majority of the time. However, this life or death scenario is a great catalyst for Secondary Metamorphosis in both Prey and Predator.