The design of digital IIR filter as a single-objective optimization problem using evolutionary algorithms has gained much attention in the previous years. In this paper, the design of filter is treated as a multi-objective problem by simultaneously minimizing the magnitude response error, linear phase response error and optimal order within the stability constraints. The global search technique, predator–prey optimization (PPO), has been applied to design the digital IIR filter. The global search technique has been hybridized with binary successive approximation (BSA)-based evolutionary search method for exploring the search space locally. The relative performance of PPO and hybrid PPO has been evaluated by applying these techniques to standard mathematical test functions. The above-proposed hybrid search technique has been applied to achieve the solution for multi-parameter and multi-objective optimization problem of low-pass (LP), high-pass (HP), band-pass (BP) and band-stop (BS) digital IIR filter design. The results obtained from the proposed technique are compared with the results of other algorithms applied by other researchers for the design of digital IIR filter.