A secondary consumer Is an organism that feeds on Primary consumers To obtain the energy needed to survive.
All secondary consumers, whether carnivorous or herbivorous, must include in their diet primary consumers to survive. The type of feed of these living beings It is known as Heterotrophic nutrition , Since they obtain their energy by feeding on other organisms.
Secondary consumers may be strictly carnivorous, if they only feed on meat, or omnivores if their food is based on both plants and animals.
Characteristics of secondary consumers
As has been said, secondary consumers can be both carnivorous and omnivorous. For example, a toad that lives in the forest eats grasshoppers and other insects. In an African savannah, lions feed on giraffes and antelopes.
In the lakes, they inhabit small fish, crabs and frogs that feed on tadpoles, small crustaceans and tiny fish. Snakes are also secondary consumers, while they feed on mice (primary consumers).
Omnivorous animals act like all types of Animal consumers : Primary, secondary and tertiary.
The best example is the human being himself, who can eat berries and vegetables as the primary consumer. It also eats cattle, being then a secondary consumer. It also feeds on chickens, which in turn feed on insects, which makes the human being a tertiary consumer.
A distinguishing feature of secondary consumers is that they can sometimes also be considered primary or tertiary consumers, depending on the environment. For example, when a squirrel eats nuts and fruits is a primary consumer.
If this squirrel eats insects or bird pups, then it is considered a secondary consumer. This type of switching can occur at any time and in any environment, depending on the food and predators in that habitat.
Frozen tundras, arid savannas and arctic waters are just some of the extreme environments in which secondary consumers live. Whether on land or in water, all they have in common is the type of food they eat: primary consumers.
Secondary consumers have adapted to exist in each type of ecosystem. Temperate regions are home to moles, birds and other secondary consumers such as dogs and cats.
Previously, they were considered secondary consumers even to humans, since other mammals could easily hunt them. However, humans are now considered the ultimate tertiary consumer.
Examples of secondary consumers
Animals that often act as secondary consumers
- Bear
- Cat
- Chicken
- Snake
- Dog
- Owl
These can hunt primary consumers like insects or small rodents and eat them, or feed on primary consumers that other animals have killed or injured.
Secondary scavengers
- Crows
- Falcons
- Wolves
Secondary aquatic consumers
- Piranhas
- Small sharks
Functions of secondary consumers
Secondary consumers are an important part of the food chain, they control the population of primary consumers by obtaining energy from them. Secondary consumers, in turn, provide power to the tertiary consumers who hunt them.
More self-sufficient organisms such as plants and others Autotrophs , Are at the base of the pyramid As they can produce their own energy. This is the first trophic level. Primary consumers (herbivores) constitute the second trophic level and secondary consumers constitute the third trophic level.
In any Trophic network , Energy is lost every time an organism eats another, so at higher trophic level, more energy is lost. Self-sustaining organisms produce 100% of their own energy, whereas when a secondary consumer eats only 1% of the original energy available.
Therefore, it is necessary that there are more producers and eaters of plants than any other type of organism, in order to provide sufficient energy to the higher levels of the pyramid.
It does not follow that, because less secondary consumers are needed, they are less important. There is a delicate balance within the food chain.
If there are not enough secondary consumers, then the tertiary consumers face starvation, or worse, their extinction, due to the scarcity of food supplies.
If there were too many secondary consumers, then an excessive amount of primary consumers would be eaten up to the edge of the extinction . Both ends would break the natural order of the ecosystem.
Because of this, there must be many more plants than plants eaters. Therefore, there are more autotrophs than heterotrophs, and more plant eaters than meat eaters.
Although there is intense competition between animals, there is also interdependence. When a species is extinguished, it can affect an entire chain of other species and have unpredictable consequences.
Types of secondary consumers
Secondary consumers can be classified into two groups: carnivorous and omnivorous. Carnivores only eat meat or other animals.
Some secondary consumers are large predators, but even the smallest ones often also feed on herbivores larger than themselves to receive enough energy. Spiders, snakes and seals are examples of carnivorous secondary consumers.
Omnivores, on the other hand, feed on both plants and animals for energy. Bears and skunks, for example, are omnivorous secondary consumers who hunt prey and eat plants.
However, some omnivores are simply scavengers. Instead of hunting, they eat the remains of animals that other predators leave behind. This is the case of opossums, vultures and hyenas, which obtain energy through the carrion.
References
- "Food web and food chain"(2008) from: Science Clarified: Online Encyclopedia. Retrieved from: scienceclarified.com.
- "Secondary Consumers and Basking Sharks"in: Aquatic / Marine Biome (2011) marinebiome2.weebly.com.
- "Difference Between 1st, 2nd & 3rd Level Consumers in a Food Web"in: Seattlepi Retrieved from: education.seattlepi.com.
- Daniels, S."Define Secondary Consumer"in: Sciencing Retrieved from: sciencing.com
- "Trophic chain"in Wikipedia. (May, 2017) Recovered from: en.wikipedia.org.
- "Food Chains and Food Webs: What's for dinner?"En: Enchanted Learning. (2016) Recovered from: enchantedlearning.com.
- "Unit 4: Heterotrophs Acquire Energy"(Dec. 2013) MrFranta.org: Secondary Consumers. Retrieved from: mrfranta.org.
- "Trophic Levels"(2012) Clubensayos.com. Recovered from: clubensayos.com.