Question

A peacock eats snakes which eat frogs. These eat hoppers which in turn thrive on leaves of the plants. The peacock is
(A) Primary consumer
(B) Secondary consumer
(C) Decomposer
(D) Apex of the food pyramid

Answer 1

Hint: Food chain is defined as the sequence of transferring of food energy from organisms to organisms. Grazing and detritus food chain are two types of food chain. The given sequence of organisms represents the grazing food chain.

Complete answer:
Food chain is defined as the transferring of food energy in the form of food from organism to organism:
There are two types of food chains on the basis of starting organism in food chain:
Grazing food chain: The food chain starts with producers.
Detritus food chain: The food chain starts with detritivores.
The given chain represents grazing food chain which have following members:
Producers are those organisms which synthesize their own food by the process of photosynthesis. Examples: Tree, grasses etc.
Primary consumers eat producers. In this food chain, Grass-hopers act as primary consumers because they eat plants. That’s why ‘primary consumer’ is an incorrect option.
Secondary consumers are those organisms which eat primary consumers. In this food chain, frogs eat hoppers (primary consumers). That’s why frogs act as secondary consumers. Hence, ‘secondary consumer’ is an incorrect option.
Tertiary consumers eat secondary consumers. Snake eats frog (secondary consumer). That’s why snakes act as tertiary consumers.
Peacocks eat snakes. They are found at the upper level in the pyramid or represent quaternary consumers. That’s why they represent the apex of the pyramid.

Hence, the answer is ‘Apex of the pyramid’.

Note: Grazing food chain and detritus food chain are two types of chain that are distinguished by looking at the starting level of food chain. Producers and Detritivore represent the grazing food chain and detritus food chain respectively.