Does the Mutual Killing and Eating Among Animals Incur Karmic Retribution?

When animals kill and eat each other, there is certainly karmic retribution. This is because all actions performed by animals are recorded and stored as karmic seeds in their respective Tathāgatagarbha, which inherently possesses this function. When these karmic seeds mature, retribution follows. Thus, all sentient beings are vessels for retribution, each burdened with heavy karmic obstructions from which they cannot extricate themselves. However, there is a distinction between killing by animals and killing by humans: animals kill purely for survival, without any malicious intent to kill. Human killing involves the issue of mental volition, making human killing karma heavier. Killing after taking precepts additionally involves offenses against the precepts—combining the karmic offense from the mind plus the offense against the precepts—resulting in even heavier karma.