Examples of Tertiary Consumers

The tertiary consumer is also referred to as the apex predator. Such consumers typically exist at the very top of every ecological food chain. Moreover, a food chain usually consists of three types of consumers– primary, secondary, and tertiary consumers respectively.

Herbivores are classified as primary consumers; secondary consumers are by definition carnivores. The tertiary consumers could both be exclusively carnivorous, or even omnivorous and feed on both primary consumers and secondary consumers.

Tertiary Consumer Definition

Tertiary consumers are those that eat the secondary consumers (large predators). For example, owls that eat snakes.

A tertiary consumer is an animal that obtains its nutrition by eating primary consumers and secondary consumers. Usually, tertiary consumers are carnivorous predators, although they may also be omnivores, which are animals that feed on both meat and plant material.

The food chain shows a very limited snapshot of an animal’s eating habits. In the real world, a tertiary consumer can eat many different animals and even plants sometimes. This means that they can be carnivorous or omnivorous. Some examples of tertiary consumers include birds of prey, big cats, and foxes.

Examples Of Tertiary Consumer

Some examples of tertiary consumers include sharks, sea lions, eagles, hawks, lions, tigers, crocodiles, pythons, and polar bears. These animals rule their range, eating both secondary and primary consumers and easily defending their territories from other species.

Many tertiary consumers also don’t have to compete for food with others because they are often apex predators. Although this isn’t always true because animals, like birds of prey, will compete for food and territories.

Tertiary consumers include a wide range of organisms found in both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and the below mentioned are some tertiary consumer examples:

• Humans
• Big cats
• Polar bear
• Secretary bird
• Crocodiles
• Python and Boas
• Marine tertiary consumers

1. Humans

Humans are omnivorous, meaning they eat both plant and animal materials. They also have a widely varied diet and so consume foods from every trophic level, including decomposers such as mushrooms!

If a person chooses to be a vegetarian or vegan, they would be classed as a primary consumer as they only eat plant material. By eating foods such as grain-fed chicken, a person would fill the role of secondary consumer, however, if that chicken is also able to eat insects the person is a tertiary consumer.

Humans are often thought of as apex predators because they have acquired the ability to kill any animal using weapons etc. However, if you took away a person’s gun and put them face to face with a lion…who do you think would be eaten?

2. Big cats

All big cats are examples of tertiary consumers. For example, lions, tigers, pumas, jaguars, etc. Furthermore, they are also apex predators, which implies that in their natural environment, there are no other organisms that prey on them.

They have features that are atypical of apex predators, including large teeth, claws, and jaws; they have strong muscles that help them run at a great speed.

Such animals also have eyes facing forward that help them track their prey. Their prey includes animals from all trophic levels below them including buffaloes, zebras, foxes, and the like.

3. Polar bear

The polar bear is the leading predator in the Arctic. It is a tertiary predator in light of the fact that it kills fish, seals, and penguins.

However, if a polar bear consumes a seal that has eaten a penguin that has eaten a fish, it may not be considered a tertiary predator. This is because several trophic levels have been passed in the process. Nonetheless, this complexity is normally ignored, and polar bears are classed as tertiary and apex predators.

4. Secretary bird

The secretary birds are well-known snake hunters as they hunt, kill, and eat a wide range of reptiles and small mammals. In fact, venomous snakes like adders and cobras are their preferred prey.

Adult secretary birds have extremely strong legs that can break human bones with a single strike and this powerful weapon renders this bird almost invincible. Although secretary birds are apex predators, their chicks are vulnerable to predation from other animals in the food chain.

5. Crocodiles

Crocodiles rule the waters. They are exceptionally powerful when in the water. They are one of the animals with the strongest jaws in the animal kingdom.

That means they boast one of the most powerful bites. Even the big cats such as tigers and lion can’t beat crocodiles if they enter the water.

6. Python and Boas

Pythons can easily dispatch wildcats and foxes; however, they would struggle to outrun predators such as big cats and adult crocodiles. These colossal snakes are also capable of killing young big cats and crocodiles, for example, caimans which are much smaller than crocodiles, are normally prey for anacondas.

7. Marine tertiary consumers

In marine ecosystems, the larger fish are the tertiary consumers. The larger fishes like tuna, barracuda, jellyfish, dolphins, seals, sea lions, turtles, sharks, and whales are tertiary consumers.

They feed on the primary producers like phytoplankton and zooplankton, as well as secondary consumers like fish, jellyfish, as well as crustaceans.

Some of these organisms, like orca whales and great white or tiger sharks, are apex predators and they are tertiary consumers in addition to many seabirds, shearwaters, penguins, and gulls.

Functions Of Tertiary Consumers

The energy stored within organisms in an ecosystem is typically transferred through a food chain or food web to the rest of the ecosystem. Every organism in a food chain occupies a specific position in the food chain, which is referred to as a trophic level.

The animals at lower trophic levels consume animals at higher trophic levels, and they themselves are consumed by animals at higher trophic levels.

At the top of the food chain, we typically have tertiary consumers, which are not preyed upon by any other animals in the area. As a result, they were given the name Apex Predators.

When tertiary consumers die, their bodies are consumed by scavengers and decomposers, who then consume their remains. Apex predators can be found at the top of some food chains, above the tertiary consumer.

Although energy is expended and lost as heat throughout the trophic levels, the process is not without its costs. As a result, the higher trophic levels have a limited supply of energy. As a result, it is common for there to be only four trophic levels. And it is the tertiary consumer who is left to fulfill the ecological role of the apex predator in the food chain.

List Of Tertiary Consumers

As the sardine example suggests, many tertiary consumers are themselves prey for other tertiary consumers, but some occupy the top rung of the food chain as “apex predators,” which aren’t actively preyed upon by any other creatures.

Examples of such formidable beasts include orcas (killer whales), golden eagles, lions, polar bears, and Indo-Pacific crocodiles. Of course, many organisms consume these apex predators after they’ve died: from scavenging birds and mammals to insects, fungi, bacteria, and other decomposers.