What Is A Secondary Consumer

Tabular array of Contents

What is a secondary consumer?
- Secondary consumer definition
Types of secondary consumers
- Carnivores
- Omnivores
Classification of Secondary Consumers
- Aquatic secondary consumers
- Terrestrial secondary consumers
- Examples of secondary consumers in a food chain
- List of secondary consumers examples in the body of water
Functions of a secondary consumer
Importance of a secondary consumer
Differences between main and secondary consumers
FAQ

What is a secondary consumer?

A secondary consumer is an beast that is primarily a carnivore (carnivores are animals that eat flesh) that preys on primary consumers or herbivores. Other examples of secondary consumers are omnivores (omnivores consume both plant and beast affair) that consume both primary consumers and primary producers or autotrophs. In the food concatenation, the secondary consumers occupy the third trophic level.

Secondary consumer definition

A secondary consumer in ecology is an organism or group of organisms that feed on chief consumers ( herbivores ) to obtain the needed energy for their survival. For instance, a deer which is a herbivore is fed upon past a lion or a hyena which is a secondary consumer.

To survive, almost every secondary consumer, whether omnivores or carnivores, must eat the master producers and the primary consumers via a heterotrophic mode of nutrition (heterotrophic style of nutrition refers to a mode of feeding where an animal feeds on multiple sources of food such as a secondary consumer consuming other organisms such as plants and animals).

Secondary consumers have evolved to thrive in a variety of ecosystems, whether, in a terrestrial or aquatic environs, and the simply thing they have in common is the blazon of nutrient they eat which are principal consumers and master producers.

Types of secondary consumers

Carnivores
Omnivores

Carnivores

Carnivores are animal species that feed mainly on the meat of other animals. For example, snakes, seals, spiders, lizards, mice, and fish are a few examples of secondary consumers that are carnivorous in nature.

In their pursuit of obtaining energy, some secondary consumers, be it a big or a small predator adopt to consume larger and bigger prey (herbivores) than themselves in lodge to complement the free energy lost during the chase.

Omnivores

The other type of secondary consumer is the omnivore and they consume both plant and animal materials to obtain energy. For case, skunks and bears are found in this category of omnivorous secondary consumers, which hunt prey as well equally consume plants.

Some omnivores are merely scavengers i.e. instead of hunting, they eat the excess animal remains left by other predators; examples of animals that scavenge for food include opossums, vultures, and hyenas.

Classification of Secondary Consumers

Aquatic secondary consumer
Terrestrial secondary consumer

Aquatic secondary consumers

Massive amounts of food tin can be found in aquatic environments providing a wide range of secondary consumers to feed on these huge quantities of nutrient in the food chain. A skillful example of a secondary consumer is an aquatic omnivore known every bit the piranha .

The piranha is a secondary consumer that feeds on fish, birds, snails, and aquatic plants. Other examples of secondary consumers in the bounding main include smaller, less predatory sharks that feed on fishes in the second trophic level.

The presence of aquatic secondary consumers is critical for population control of chief consumers, otherwise, the population of the principal consumers would get uncontrollable, resulting in excessive consumption of ecosystem producers.

That is, there would be no life on Earth if these primary producers and other like autotrophs did not exist.

Terrestrial secondary consumers

Terrestrial ecosystems or environments span from freezing habitats with negative temperatures to deserts with no h2o near the equator.

Secondary consumers have certain adaptative characteristics that allow them to survive in a variety of terrestrial ecosystems, for example, dogs, cats, owls, snakes, moles, and birds, can be plant in temperate regions and these secondary consumers kill and source for their own food whereas other secondary consumers such every bit wolves, crows, and hawks, found in cold regions obtain their energy from master consumers by scavenging.

Every bit stated earlier, depending on the surround, secondary consumers tin can as well exist classified as main consumers.

In this case, a squirrel is a proficient instance, considering it consumes nuts and fruits on certain occasions, making it a primary consumer. The squirrel may start eating insects and thus become a secondary consumer and this type of switching can occur at whatever fourth dimension and in any location, depending on food and predators in the environment.

Examples of secondary consumers in a food concatenation

Panthera leo
Bear
Squirrel
Snakes
Owls
Cats
Moles
Hawks
Crows
Wolves
Piranhas
Dogs

The in a higher place listed are the secondary consumer examples plant in both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.

Listing of secondary consumers examples in the ocean

Whales
Carnivorous fish
Squids
Bounding main stars
Seals
Lobsters

Functions of a secondary consumer

Secondary consumers play an important part in ecology and the food chain as they aid in the regulation of the populations of primary consumers in an ecosystem. They practise so by feeding on the main consumers in the nutrient chain for energy.

Secondary consumers too provide nutrients and energy to 3rd consumers when tertiary consumers in the food spider web feed on them.

Consumers are classified into trophic levels, with free energy flowing from the lesser to the pinnacle of the trophic level. In order to sympathise the part of the secondary consumer, a summary of the trophic levels will be given starting with the principal producers.

Primary producers or autotrophic plants occupy the lowest trophic level also known as the first trophic level in the food concatenation considering of their ability to generate their own energy through the process of photosynthesis.

The second trophic level in the food web is occupied past the primary consumers, followed by the occupation of the third trophic level by the secondary consumers.

The fourth trophic level is occupied by the tertiary consumers.

At present that the occupants of the various trophic levels in the food web take been identified, a further breakdown of the energy transfer volition be subsequently discussed.

It has been observed that up to ninety% of energy is lost during the transfer of energy from i trophic level to the side by side. That means that only 10% of the energy is transferred to the side by side trophic level and this x% is typically stored as flesh before being transported to the fauna in the next tropical level.

While self-sustaining organisms generate 100% of their ain free energy, a secondary consumer receives merely 1% of the original energy generated in the food chain and high-level consumers receive even less energy. This explains why nutrient chains rarely exceed 5 trophic levels.

Because of this energy loss, higher-level consumers must consume more food, and equally a result, there must be more primary producers and consumers of plants than any other type of organism.

This ensures that at that place is enough free energy for the college trophic levels. However, just considering fewer secondary consumers are required in an ecosystem does non imply that they are any less important. Their presence is disquisitional to the nutrient chain's balance, if not, tertiary consumers would go hungry if there were non enough secondary consumers in a nutrient concatenation due to lack of food resources, and they may even get extinct.

The case of an overabundance of secondary consumers will lead to an overconsumption of principal consumers to the point of extinction.

Both scenarios where there is a low populace of secondary consumers and a loftier populace of chief consumers would upset the ecosystem'southward natural balance. In lite of this, there must exist more plants than found consumers and more secondary consumers that feed on the plant-eaters.

Aside from the intense competition between animals, they are besides interdependent associations amongst the animals that assist to residue the whole food concatenation. Because, when an organism is wiped out, it can have far-reaching consequences for a whole chain of other organisms.

Importance of a secondary consumer

It provides a balance in the ecosystem by preventing the overpopulation of primary consumers.
Information technology also provides energy to other members of the tertiary consumers in the 4th trophic level of the nutrient chain. This is because secondary consumers are eaten past larger animals in the food chain.

Differences betwixt master and secondary consumers

Primary consumersSecondary consumersThey feed on autotrophs (primary producers or plants)Secondary consumers feed on primary consumers.
Primary consumers are more often than not herbivores	They are either carnivores or omnivores
They occupy the second trophic level in the food chain	Members of this group occupy the 3rd trophic level in the nutrient chain.
Examples of primary consumers include; rabbits, grasshoppers, insect larvae, venereal, and cows.	Secondary consumers examples include; frogs, mice, hyenas, lions, and piranhas.

A tabular array showing the differences between principal and secondary consumers

FAQ

Is a frog a secondary consumer?

Yes, considering frogs feed on insect larvae and insects that feed on plants. This means they eat the next organisms in the food web.

Is a mouse a secondary consumer?

Yes, and this is because a mouse feed on grasshoppers, and grasshoppers occupy the second trophic level while a mouse occupies the third trophic level.

Joseph enjoys writing and learning about the fields of ecology and biology. He has experience teaching both of these subjects at a variety of universities equally an offshoot professor. In his costless time Joseph enjoys, surfing with his kids and going on multi-twenty-four hours backpacking trips.