Apex predator | Definition, Examples, & Facts (2024)

FAQs

Apex predator | Definition, Examples, & Facts? ›

In the natural sciences, an apex predator is a predator that exists at the very top of the food chain. Unlike some other predators, it's never preyed upon itself. Examples include polar bears, lions, crocodiles, and orcas.

5 Apex Predators: Lion, Eagle, Leopard, Orca, Polar Bear.

An apex predator, also known as a top predator, is a predator at the top of a food chain, without natural predators of its own. The lion is the world's second-largest big cat and serves as an apex land predator in Africa.

Apex predators are predators with no natural predators of their own. They are at the top of their food chain. Apex predators have big effects on the animals and plants lower down the food chain. If they become extinct in an area, many changes happen.

Gorillas help manage new plant growth, spread seeds, and keep the forest ecosystem intact. And although they are not an apex predator (like lions and tigers, for example), they hold an important place in their jungle ecosystem.

The majority of sharks we study are apex predators. Even though they are at the top of the oceanic food chain and can live for decades, they are still susceptible to overfishing. Unlike most fish, sharks grow slowly, reproduce late in life, and have only a few offspring.

However, the red fox is not at the top of the food chain. Larger animals such as coyotes or birds of prey will hunt the fox. Thus, the red fox has a place in the middle of the food web and can be both a predator and prey.

Tigers are ambush predators that rely on stealth and strength to take down prey. These apex predators primarily hunt large ungulates, such as wild boar and deer, but are also known to consume monkeys, buffalo, sloth bears, leopards and even crocodiles.

Apex predators are animals that are at the very top of the food chain. This means they hunt other animals, but are not hunted themselves.

Apex predators occupy the highest trophic positions in food webs and serve profoundly important roles in ecological and evolutionary processes, shaping and re-shaping the traits of prey and how they interact with one another and the ecosystem.

What do apex predators eat? ›

Apex predators eat other consumers. They may be at the fourth or fifth trophic level. They have no natural enemies except people. A food web consists of all the food chains in a single ecosystem.

Whether apex predators retain a genetic memory of this extermination or are reacting to current-day persecution, the effect is the same: Apex predators across the world are afraid of humans.

Lions. As a large, apex predator that hunts animals weighing up to 1,000 pounds, a lion is more than capable of having a human for lunch. And they do. Lions kill between 20 and 250 people each year worldwide.

Grizzly bears (Ursus arctos horribilis) are exceptionally well suited to fill the role of apex predator. They are big and versatile, powerful and smart, and, when the need arises, fierce.

Grizzly bears are apex predators, which means they are at the top of the food chain. They have no natural predators and can easily hunt and catch large mammals such as elk and bison.

Orca. Orcas, or killer whales, are not just apex predators of the ocean but also incredibly intelligent beings. Orcas live in tightly-knit family groups led by matriarchs.