Here's a riddle: What's the difference between a tick and a lion? The answer used to be that a tick is a parasite and the lion is a predator. But now those definitions don't seem as secure as they once did.
A tick also hunts its prey, following vapor trails of carbon dioxide, and consumes host tissues (blood is considered a tissue), so at least in terms of its interactions with other creatures, it is like a lion — a very small, eight-legged lion.