AP BIOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -Secondary consumers are organisms that eat primary consumers for energy. Primary consumers are always herbivores, or organisms that only eat autotrophic plants. However, secondary consumers can either be carnivores or omnivores. Carnivores only eat other animals, and omnivores eat both plant and animal matter.

Detailed explanation-2: -Secondary consumers are mostly carnivores, from the Latin words meaning “meat eater.” In the Everglades, egrets and alligators are carnivores. They eat only other animals. Most carnivores, called predators, hunt and kill other animals, but not all carnivores are predators.

Detailed explanation-3: -Second Level Secondary consumers get their energy from primary consumers and herbivores in their ecosystems. For example, a toad living in the woods eats grasshoppers and other insects. On an African savannah, lions feed on giraffes and antelope.

Detailed explanation-4: -Secondary consumers are usually carnviores (meat eaters) but can also be omnivores. Omnivorous consumers eat everything-like people do. In the example above, the owl is a secondary consumer because it eats the mouse, who is a primary consumer.

Detailed explanation-5: -A first-level consumer in the food chain is a herbivore that eats producers (plants), and a second-level consumer is a carnivore that eats the first-level herbivore animals. So, an organism that is both first-level and second-level consumer is an omnivore.