The aim of this paper is to establish a precise illustration for the structure of the nonconstant steady states for a Beddington–DeAngelis and Tanner predator–prey reaction–diffusion system with prey‐taxis. We treat the nonlinear prey‐taxis as a bifurcation parameter to analyze the bifurcation structure of the system. Furthermore, the exported global bifurcation theorem, under a rather natural condition, offers the existence of nonconstant steady states. In the proof, a priori estimates of steady states will play an important role. The local stability analysis with a numerical simulation and bifurcation analysis are given. Finally, some conclusions including biological meanings are performed to summarize our main analytic results and future investigations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]