Is a whale a top consumer?

Is a whale a top consumer?

They are the animals in the middle of the food chain. they eat plankton, shrimp and mollusks, which are primary consumers (see: primary consumers).

What consumers are whales?

In the example above, phytoplankton are the primary producers, zooplankton are primary consumers, small fish are secondary consumers, porpoises are tertiary consumers and orca whales are quaternary consumers.

What is great whale?

Great whales are those of great size, including the gray, humpback, right, blue, sperm, bow- head, fin, sei, Minke, pygmy right, and Bryde’s whales. Within this group, the size varies greatly from species to species. The smallest, the pygmy right whale, grows up to 8 meters, while blue whales reach 30 meters in length.

Is a blue whale a producer or consumer?

The blue whale is a secondary consumer on the food chain.

What type of consumer is a whale shark?

Sharing not only their name and dimensions but their method of feeding with whales, whale sharks are big consumers of small prey. Their wide mouths take in large quantities of water and planktonic critters, like krill, sea jellies and crab larvae, and their gill rakers sieve these goodies for eating.

Which is a primary consumer?

Primary consumers are herbivores, feeding on plants. Caterpillars, insects, grasshoppers, termites and hummingbirds are all examples of primary consumers because they only eat autotrophs (plants). There are certain primary consumers that are called specialists because they only eat one type of producers.

What is the whale food chain?

In general, baleen whales feed low on the food chain, primarily eating zooplankton and small fishes, which they encounter in large swarms or schools. Right whales eat zooplankton (animal plankton). Blue whales eat mostly krill. Fin whales eat krill, copepods, squids, and variety of small schooling fishes.

Are sharks consumers?

A shark is a tertiary consumer. An area has only a few top predators.

Are great whales a keystone species?

This intelligent marine predator is a keystone species of our oceans. The blue whales, along with the other great whales, play a key role in maintaining a healthy ocean ecosystem. This interplay between whales, phytoplankton, and the atmosphere is a key to sustaining a healthy ocean and planet.

What makes a whale a mammal?

Whales are mammals which means that, like humans and other land mammals, they have three inner ear bones and hair, they breathe air, and the females produce milk through mammary glands and suckle their young.

Are killer whales producers or consumers?

Is Killer Whale a Autotroph? Autotrophs are called producers, because they produce their own food. Herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores are consumers. Killer whales, or orcas, are a classic example of tertiary consumers.

Is a blue whale a omnivore?

The Blue Whale is a carnivorous animal that despite the fact that it doesn’t have proper teeth, survives on a diet that is mainly comprised of krill and small crustaceans, along with the occasional small fish.

Why are great whales important to the environment?

Why They Matter. Whales are at the top of the food chain and have an important role in the overall health of the marine environment. Unfortunately their large size and mythical aura does not protect them; six out of the 13 great whale species are classified as endangered, even after decades of protection.

What kind of food does a right whale eat?

In the Southern Hemisphere, right whales feed far offshore in summer, but a large portion of the population occur in near-shore waters in winter. Right whales feed mainly on copepods but also consume krill and pteropods.

How much krill does a blue whale eat in a day?

An adult blue whale can eat up to 40 million krill in a day. The whales always feed in the areas with the highest concentration of krill, sometimes eating up to 3,600 kilograms (7,900 lb) of krill in a single day.

How many species of right whales are there?

Through the 1800s and 1900s, in fact, the family Balaenidae has been the subject of great taxonometric debate. Authorities have repeatedly recategorized the three populations of right whale plus the bowhead whale, as one, two, three or four species, either in a single genus or in two separate genera.