It starts with acorns, which are eaten by mice. The mice are eaten by snakes, and then finally the snakes are eaten by hawks. At each link in the chain, energy is being transferred from one animal to another. Grass to grasshopper to mouse to snake to hawk.

The order of a food chain looks like this: sun (or light energy), primary producers, primary consumers, secondary consumers, and tertiary consumers.

Plants and other organisms that can use sunlight first absorb it and then use that energy to make their own food. That energy passes to other organisms that eat the plants. For example, grass uses sunlight to make food. The hawk gets energy by eating the mouse.

owls

At the top of the scale are meat-eaters that don’t have any predators themselves, such as polar bears and orca whales. Instead, we sit somewhere between pigs and anchovies, scientists reported recently. That puts us right in the middle of the chain, with polar bears and orca whales occupying the highest position.

Top 9 Apex Predators In The World

• 8 Snow Leopard.
• 7 Saltwater Crocodile.
• 6 Golden Eagle.
• 5 Polar Bear.
• 4 Lion.
• 3 Great White Shark.
• 2 Tiger.
• 1 Killer Whale.

The insect world is home to reportedly the most successful hunter on Earth. In 2012 researchers at Harvard University, Massachusetts, US, found that dragonflies caught up to 95% of the prey they chased.

Our apex predator guide looks at animals that hunt in the wild, comparing common prey and the hunting success rates of each species.

• African wild dogs – 85% successful kills.
• Black-footed cat – 60% successful kills.
• Cheetah – 58% successful kills.
• Leopard – 38% successful kills.
• Domestic cat – 32% successful kills.

Hyenas have a bad rap—but they’re Africa’s most successful…

• An aardwolf and her pup emerge from their den at Duba Plains Camp in Botswana.
• Spotted hyenas fight with a lioness in Masai Mara National Reserve in Kenya.
• Spotted hyenas feed on the remains of a cow in Kenya.