nonprey

Nonprey is a term used in ecology and predator-prey research to denote species that are not prey for a particular predator, or more generally, organisms that are not represented as prey in a given dataset or model. It is a descriptive label rather than a formal taxonomic category, and its precise meaning depends on study design, context, and data collection methods.

In diet analysis, researchers document observed prey items from predators through stomach content analysis, scat, or direct observation. Species that are not identified as prey in these records may be labeled nonprey, especially when researchers compare the diversity or abundance of prey items to nonprey items to understand predation pressure, diet breadth, or for the purpose of simplifying analytical models.

Nonprey status is often context-dependent. A species might be nonprey in a particular season, habitat, or geographic area but could become prey under different conditions if predator availability, prey behavior, or environmental factors change. In broader food-web analyses, nonprey helps distinguish organisms that occupy trophic levels outside the direct prey-predator interaction being studied, such as producers, detritivores, or higher-level predators not consumed by the focal predator.

Limitations include potential misclassification due to incomplete sampling, seasonal diet shifts, or methodological biases that obscure rare or opportunistic predation. As a flexible label, nonprey is most useful for clarifying comparison groups in ecological models and for describing predator–prey relationships within a defined context. Related concepts include predator-prey dynamics, diet breadth, and trophic interactions.