Consumer

Key Stage 2

Meaning

A consumer is a creature the eats other creatures.

Singular Noun: Consumer

Plural Noun: Consumers

About Consumers

A consumer cannot make its own food so it must eat other creatures.

A consumer might eat a producer, or it might eat another consumer.

Examples

In this food chain the bush is the producer and the gazelle and cheetah are consumers.

In this food chain the grass is the producer and the grasshopper, baboon and cheetah are all consumers.

Key Stage 3

Meaning

A consumer is an organism that feeds on other organisms to gain energy.

About Consumers

A consumer cannot make its own food so it must eat other organisms.

A consumer might feed on producers, or it might feed on other consumers.

Consumers can be labelled as primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary, depending on where their trophic level in a food chain.

In this food chain the giraffe is a primary consumer and the lion is a secondary consumer.

In this food chain the grasshopper, pied flycatcher, skunk and vulture are all consumers.

Key Stage 4

Meaning

Consumers are organisms that feed off other organisms within a community.

About Consumers

Consumers are in the second trophic level or higher.

Consumers may be primary secondary, tertiary or quaternary consumers.

Consumers are usually either animals or fungi.

References

Edexcel

Consumers, page 289, GCSE Biology, CGP, Edexcel

OCR

Consumers, pages 130-131, Gateway GCSE Biology, Oxford, OCR