A carnivore is an organism that mostly eats meat, or the flesh of animals. Sometimes carnivores are called predators. Organisms that carnivores hunt are called prey.

Carnivores are a major role of the food web, a description of which organisms swallow which other organisms in the wild. Organisms in the food web are grouped into trophic, or nutritional, levels. In that location are 3 trophic levels. Autotrophs, organisms that produce their ain food, are the outset trophic level. These include plants and algae. Herbivores, organisms that eat plants and other autotrophs, are the second trophic level. Carnivores are the third trophic level. Omnivores, creatures that consume a wide diversity of organisms from plants to animals to fungi, are also the third trophic level.

Autotrophs are called producers, because they produce their own food. Herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores are consumers. Herbivores are primary consumers. Carnivores and omnivores are secondary consumers.

Many carnivores consume herbivores. Some eat omnivores, and some swallow other carnivores. Carnivores that consume other carnivores are called third consumers. Killer whales, or orcas, are a classic instance of tertiary consumers. Killer whales hunt seals and sea lions. Seals and ocean lions are carnivores that consume fish, squid, and octopuses.

Some carnivores, called obligate carnivores, depend merely on meat for survival. Their bodies cannot digest plants properly. Plants do not provide enough nutrients for obligate carnivores. All cats, from small house cats to huge tigers, are obligate carnivores.

Most carnivores are not obligate carnivores. A hypercarnivore is an organism that depends on animals for at least 70 percent of its diet. Plants, fungi, and other nutrients make up the rest of their nutrient. All obligate carnivores, including cats, are hypercarnivores. Sea stars, which prey generally on clams and oysters, are as well hypercarnivores.

Mesocarnivores depend on beast meat for at least 50 percent of their diet. Foxes are mesocarnivores. They also eat fruits, vegetables, and fungi.

Hypocarnivores depend on animal meat for less than xxx percent of their diet. Most species of bears are hypocarnivores. They swallow meat, fish, berries, basics, and even the roots and bulbs of plants. Hypocarnivores such as bears are also considered omnivores.

The planet's largest animal is a carnivore. The blueish whale tin can reach 30 meters (100 feet) long and weigh as much as 180 metric tons (200 tons). It feeds by taking huge gulps of water and and so filtering out tiny shrimp-like creatures called krill. The blue whale tin consume nearly 3.vi metric tons (4 tons) of krill every day—that's about 40 meg of the niggling creatures. The largest country carnivore is the polar bear, which feeds mainly on seals.

Hunting

Carnivores have biological adaptations that assist them hunt. Carnivorous mammals such as wolves have potent jaws and long, sharp teeth that help them catch and rip apart their prey. Plant-eaters, on the other hand, usually have big molars that assistance them grind up leaves and grasses.

Lions, cougars, and other cats accept sharp claws that they employ to hunt. Birds such as hawks and owls too hunt with their claws, called talons. Many carnivorous birds, called raptors, accept curved beaks that they utilise to tear apart their prey.

Many carnivores grab their prey in their mouths. Great blue herons wade slowly through shallow water and then suddenly snatch a fish, crab, or other creature from the water. Toads take hold of mice in their mouths. Sperm whales dive deep into the sea where they bite agree of squid.

Spiders capture their prey—usually insects—by trapping them in a gluey web. Other carnivores assail their prey with a bite or a sting that injects toxic venom into the victim. The venom either paralyzes or kills the prey. Snakes such as king cobras have hollow fangs that act like needles to inject venom. Cobras mostly prey on other snakes. Jellyfish have stingers on their tentacles, which paralyze fish swimming nearby.

Most carnivores are animals, but plants and fungi tin can be carnivores also. The Venus flytrap is a plant that catches insects in its leaves. When an insect brushes against the sensitive hairs on the leaf, the leaf folds in 2 and snaps shut. The insect is trapped inside. Other carnivorous plants, such as the sundew, produce a sticky cloth that catches insects.

Fungi are a group of organisms that include mushrooms, molds, and mildew. Some fungi trap and consume tiny organisms. Most carnivorous fungi casualty on microscopic worms chosen nematodes, which they trap with suffocating rings.

Diets

Certain types of carnivores have specific diets. Some, such as sea lions, eat mainly fish. They are chosen piscivores (piscis is the Latin word for fish).

Others, such equally lizards, eat mainly insects. They are called insectivores. Many bats are also insectivores. One niggling brown bat can consume a thousand mosquitoes in an hr. Some insects are themselves insectivores. These include ladybugs, dragonflies, and praying mantises.

Carnivores that have been known to attack and swallow human beings are known as human being-eaters. Some species of sharks, alligators, and bears are called homo-eaters. Notwithstanding, no carnivore specifically hunts man beings or relies on them every bit a regular food source.

Cannibals are carnivores that eat the meat of members of their own species. Many animals practise cannibalism. For some species, cannibalism is a way of eliminating competitors for food, mates, or other resources. Chimpanzees and bears, for example, will hunt and swallow the immature of family members, sometimes their own offspring. Praying mantis females will impale and eat the bodies of their mates.

Many carnivores are scavengers, creatures that eat the meat of expressionless animals, or carrion. Dissimilar other types of carnivores, scavengers commonly do not chase the animals they eat. Some, such every bit vultures, consume animals that have died from natural causes. Others, such as hyenas, will snatch meat hunted by other carnivores. Many insects, such as flies and beetles, are scavengers.

Some carnivores, including sea lions, feed often. Others, such every bit king cobras, tin go months between meals.

Carnivores in the Food Chain

For a healthy ecosystem, information technology is important that the populations of autotrophs, herbivores, and carnivores exist in rest. Energy from nutrients is lost at each trophic level. It takes many autotrophs to support a fewer number of herbivores. In turn, a unmarried carnivore may have a home range of dozens or fifty-fifty hundreds of miles. A Siberian tiger, for instance, may patrol a range of 1,000 foursquare kilometers (386 square miles).

In some places, the disappearance of big carnivores has led to an overpopulation of herbivores, disrupting the ecosystem. Wolves and cougars are traditional predators of white-tailed deer, for instance. Just hunting and development take eliminated these predators from the northeastern United states of america. Without natural predators, the population of white-tailed deer has skyrocketed. In some areas, at that place are so many deer that they cannot find plenty food. They frequently stray into towns and suburbs in search of food.

Carnivores depend on herbivores and other animals to survive. Zebras and gazelles in one case traveled in great herds over the plains of Africa. But these herds take shrunk and are now mostly bars to parks and wildlife reserves. As the numbers of these herbivores decline, carnivores such as African wild dogs, which prey on them, also turn down. Scientists estimate that only 3,000 to 5,500 African wild dogs remain in the wild.

carnivore

Cougars, like all cats, are a specialized type of carnivore called a hypercarnivore.

Specialized Carnivores
Some carnivores specialize in hunting i type of organism.

  • Spongivores more often than not eat ocean sponges. Many types of sea turtles are spongivores.
  • Vermivores generally eat worms. Birds such as snipes and kiwis are vermivores. They accept long, narrow beaks for poking in the soil for worms.
  • Avivores mostly eat birds. Many predatory birds, such as hawks and falcons, are avivores. They casualty on smaller birds.
  • Ovivores mostly eat eggs. Many snakes are ovivores.

algae

Plural Substantive

(singular: alga) various group of aquatic organisms, the largest of which are seaweeds.

Noun

organism that can produce its ain food and nutrients from chemicals in the atmosphere, usually through photosynthesis or chemosynthesis.

avivore

Noun

organism that generally eats birds.

biological adaptation

Noun

physical change in an organism that results over time in reaction to its environment.

bluish whale

Noun

species of marine mammal that is the largest creature to have ever lived.

cannibal

Noun

organism that eats the meat of members of its own species.

Noun

organism that eats meat.

carrion

Noun

flesh of a dead animal.

consumer

Noun

organism on the nutrient chain that depends on autotrophs (producers) or other consumers for food, nutrition, and energy.

Noun

growth, or changing from i condition to another.

Noun

foods eaten by a specific group of people or other organisms.

digest

Verb

to catechumen nutrient into nutrients that can exist captivated.

Noun

customs and interactions of living and nonliving things in an surface area.

eliminate

Verb

to remove.

fang

Noun

long, abrupt, protruding tooth. In many animals, fangs are hollow and used to inject venom.

filter

Verb

to remove particles from a substance by passing the substance through a screen or other material that catches larger particles and lets the rest of the substance pass through.

Substantive

group of organisms linked in gild of the food they consume, from producers to consumers, and from prey, predators, scavengers, and decomposers.

Noun

all related food chains in an ecosystem. Also called a nutrient cycle.

frequent

Describing word

often.

fruit

Substantive

edible office of a plant that grows from a flower.

fungi

Plural Noun

(singular: fungus) organisms that survive by decomposing and absorbing nutrients in organic textile such as soil or dead organisms.

Substantive

organism that eats mainly plants and other producers.

home range

Noun

area where an animal lives.

hypercarnivore

Noun

organism that depends on meat for more than 70 percentage of its diet.

hypocarnivore

Noun

organism that depends on meat for less than 30 percent of its diet.

insectivore

Noun

organism that mostly eats insects.

killer whale

Noun

carnivorous whale, actually the world's largest species of dolphin. Also called an orca.

krill

Noun

modest marine crustacean, like to shrimp.

mammal

Noun

animal with hair that gives nativity to live offspring. Female mammals produce milk to feed their offspring.

man-eater

Noun

organism that has been known to chase and kill human beings.

meat

Noun

animal mankind eaten as food.

mesocarnivore

Noun

organism that depends on meat for at least 50 percentage of its diet.

microscopic

Adjective

very minor.

mildew

Substantive

type of fungi that usually forms a thin, powdery layer over plants or other organic cloth.

tooth

Noun

large, flat tooth used for chewing and grinding.

mold

Noun

type of fungi that forms on the surface of materials.

nematode

Substantive

microscopic, worm-like creature.

Noun

substance an organism needs for energy, growth, and life.

nutrition

Noun

process by which living organisms obtain food or nutrients, and use information technology for growth.

obligate carnivore

Noun

organism that depends entirely on meat for food, diet, and survival.

offspring

Substantive

the children of a person or animal.

Noun

organism that eats a variety of organisms, including plants, animals, and fungi.

organism

Noun

living or once-living thing.

overpopulation

Noun

situation where the amount of organisms in an surface area is besides big for the ecosystem to support.

ovivore

Noun

organism that mostly eats eggs.

paralyze

Verb

to preclude movement.

piscivore

Substantive

organism that mostly eats fish.

plant

Noun

organism that produces its own food through photosynthesis and whose cells have walls.

polar bear

Noun

large mammal native to the Arctic.

predator

Noun

animal that hunts other animals for food.

casualty

Noun

animate being that is hunted and eaten by other animals.

primary consumer

Substantive

organism that eats producers; herbivores.

producer

Noun

organism on the nutrient chain that tin produce its own free energy and nutrients. Too chosen an autotroph.

raptor

Noun

bird of prey, or carnivorous bird.

Substantive

organism that eats dead or rotting biomass, such every bit animal flesh or plant material.

sea star

Substantive

marine animate being (echinoderm) with many arms radiating from its body. Besides chosen a starfish.

secondary consumer

Substantive

organism that eats meat.

skyrocket

Verb

to increment chop-chop.

species

Noun

grouping of like organisms that can reproduce with each other.

spongivore

Noun

organism that mostly eats sea sponges.

sundew

Noun

carnivorous plant with sticky hairs that trap insects.

talon

Substantive

hook of a bird, specially a bird of prey or raptor.

tentacle

Noun

a long, narrow, flexible torso office extending from the bodies of some animals.

tertiary consumer

Noun

carnivore that mostly eats other carnivores.

toxic

Describing word

poisonous.

trophic level

Noun

1 of three positions on the food chain: autotrophs (first), herbivores (second), and carnivores and omnivores (third).

vegetable

Noun

plant that is grown or harvested for food.

venom

Noun

poison fluid made in the bodies of some organisms and secreted for hunting or protection.

Venus flytrap

Noun

cannibal plant that traps and consumes more often than not insects.

vermivore

Noun

organism that mostly eats worms.

wildlife reserve

Noun

surface area prepare aside and protected by the regime or other arrangement to maintain wildlife habitat. Also called a nature preserve.

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    Writers

    Kim Rutledge
    Tara Ramroop
    Diane Boudreau
    Melissa McDaniel
    Santani Teng
    Erin Sprout
    Hilary Costa
    Hilary Hall
    Jeff Chase

    Illustrators

    Mary Crooks, National Geographic Society
    Tim Gunther

    Editors

    Jeannie Evers, Emdash Editing
    Kara West

    Educator Reviewer

    Nancy Wynne

    Producer

    Caryl-Sue, National Geographic Society

    Sources

    Dunn, Margery K. (Editor). (1989, 1993). "Exploring Your World: The Adventure of Geography." Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Gild.

    Terminal Updated

    Jan. 21, 2011

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