Question

In some ecosystems mountain lions eat deer, coyotes, and rabbit. Which of the following terms best describes theses mountain lions

Answer 1

The term that best describes the mountain lions is secondary consumers (option A).

Consumers in ecology are organisms (heterotroph) that uses other organisms for food in order to gain energy.

According to this question, mountain lions eat deer, coyotes, and rabbit in some ecosystem. This illustrates that mountain lions are the secondary consumers of such ecosystem.

A secondary consumer can feed on a wide variety of organisms at different trophic levels.

The complete options are as follows:

a. secondary consumers

b. producers

c. primary consumers

d. decomposers

Answer 2

Mountain lions are tertiary consumer because it feeds on both primary and secondary consumers.

Explanation:

Primary consumers are those organisms which feed on the producer such as plants. Rabbits and deer are the examples of primary consumer. Secondary consumers are those organisms which takes energy from primary consumers by feeding on them and tertiary consumers are those which feed on both primary and secondary consumers. In this ecosystem, mountain lions are tertiary consumer.