Question

A crocodile had just eaten a lamb when a hawk saw the crocodile, attacked it and consumed it. The hawk is in ecological terms called as

• A. A producer
• B. A primary consumer
• C. A secondary consumer
• D. A tertiary consumer

Answer 1

Answer: (D)

A tertiary consumer

Food chains start at trophic level 1 with primary producers such as plants, move to herbivores at level 2, predators at level 3 and typically finish with carnivores or apex predators at level 4 or 5. Here, lamb - primary consumer, crocodile - secondary consumer and hawk is the tertiary consumer. Thus, the correct answer is option D.