Consumers are animals that can’t make their own food.
You’ve got your producers, your decomposers and then, you’ve got us—THE CONSUMERS! Consumers are animals that can’t make their own food–like plants do–so they have to eat other animals and plants. Ick! Sounds kinda disgusting when put like that, but hey, consumers get hungry, too!
Consumers are animals that eat other animals and plants.
And there are a lot of us consumers. The Tyrannosaurus Rex is a famous consumer, but dogs, rabbits, birds, and you and me, are consumers, too. If you can’t make it, you’ve got to hunt it down and eat it, right? Or, at least, get it out of the fridge. So what do consumers consume (i.e. eat)? Well, for instance, dogs eat rabbits, rabbits eat grass, and eagles eat rabbits, and we eat just about everything. Burp…
Consumers–Producers–Decomposers form the food chain of life.
And that food chain is part of what keeps nature humming along happily. So no matter if you are the eater, or the eaten, (or decaying into something tasty for the decomposers) each of us is important to the balance and harmony of our ecosystem. And that’s a beautiful thing, indeed.
