An organism that eats producers is called a ...

• A. Producer
• B. Secondary consumer
• C. Tertiary consumer
• D. Primary consumer

Answer: (D)

In ecosystems, energy moves from producers, which synthesize their own food, to consumers that eat those producers. An organism that feeds directly on producers is at the first consumer level, called a primary consumer. These are typically herbivores, like rabbits eating grass or caterpillars on leaves, and certain zooplankton that eat phytoplankton. Producers aren’t consumers because they don’t eat other organisms; they make energy themselves. Secondary and tertiary consumers eat other animals, not producers, placing them at higher trophic levels. So the term that fits an organism eating producers is primary consumer.