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He meant it in terms of his predatory instinct, his movement in the box, but it came to stand for something else.
When they make contact with humans who want to play with them, they treat the humans as their pod - but they never lose their predatory instinct.
By contrast, cats use their predatory instincts to catch birds yet rarely need to eat them to survive, having the choice of human-provided cat food.
variable noun
Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
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predatory instinct
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Definition of predatory instinct from the Collins English Dictionary
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Collins Dictionaries for Schools
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