Tertiary Consumer — Definition & Role

What Are Tertiary Consumers?

They are animals that eat secondary consumers.

If you look at a picture of a food chain, they are the third animal down from the plants.

producer $\rightarrow$ primary consumer $\rightarrow$ secondary consumer $\rightarrow$ $\color{#3DB917}{\text{tertiary consumer}}$ $\rightarrow$ ...

These consumers are carnivores in the food chain. This means that they are meat eaters, feeding on other animals. 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 actually be carnivorous or omnivorous. Some examples of tertiary consumers include, birds of prey, big cats, and foxes.

$$\color{#8925AE}{\text{Vocabulary Review:}}$$

$\color{#8925AE}{\text{Food Chain}}$ : How energy passes through an ecosystem through organisms eating and being eaten

$\color{#8925AE}{\text{Producer}}$ : Organisms that get their energy from the sun through photosynthesis or from other chemical reactions through chemosynthesis

$\color{#8925AE}{\text{Consumer}}$ : Organisms that consume other organisms for energy

$\color{#8925AE}{\text{Decomposer}}$ : Organisms that break down waste and dead matter

(Video) Food Webs and Energy Pyramids: Bedrocks of Biodiversity

By Amoeba Sisters

This video by Amoeba Sisters explains food chains, energy pyramids, and food webs.

Example of a Food Chain

An example of a food chain goes like this:

Grass (producer) $\rightarrow$ grasshopper (primary consumer) $\rightarrow$ frog (secondary consumer) $\rightarrow$ snake (tertiary consumer)

When one organism consumes something from the trophic level directly below it, they get ten percent of that organism's energy. This means that consumers from trophic level four only get a very small amount of energy from the original producer.

Balance in Ecosystems

If one link in the food chain is harmed, it could be disastrous for the whole ecosystem. Let's think about it in terms of the simple food chain from above. If the tertiary consumers go away, nothing will be around to stop the secondary consumer population from growing out of control. Here's another example. If the secondary consumers are cut out of the picture, the tertiary consumers will have nothing to eat, causing them to eventually die out.

The Fourth Link in the Chain

Tertiary consumers are animals that eat other animals. Specifically, they eat the secondary consumers in a food chain. This makes them carnivores, they do not typically eat plants. If you look at a food chain, this is the fourth organism in the chain, starting with plants.

In some food chains, this level of consumer is the last link in the chain. Often, tertiary and quaternary consumers are considered predators, or even apex predators.

Here's an example food chain:

$$\color{#29A603}{\text{plankton (producer)}}$$ $$\color{#29A603}{\downarrow}$$ $$\color{#29A603}{\text{shrimp (primary consumer)}}$$ $$\color{#29A603}{\downarrow}$$ $$\color{#29A603}{\text{minnows (secondary consumer)}}$$ $$\color{#29A603}{\downarrow}$$ $$\color{#29A603}{\text{tuna (tertiary consumer)}}$$ $$\color{#29A603}{\downarrow}$$ $$\color{#29A603}{\text{shark (quaternary consumer)}}$$

Sharks also often eat minnows and are therefore capable of being both tertiary and quaternary consumers in real life.

(Video) Ecosystem Ecology: Links in the Chain

by CrashCourse

In this video, Hank explains how the food chain cycles nutrients and energy through an ecosystem.

Tertiary consumers are animals that eat secondary consumers. These animals are typically carnivores and seen as predators.