Arizona Educator Proficiency Assessments (AEPA) Practice Exam 2025 – Your All-in-One Guide to Exam Mastery!

A secondary consumer is an organism that primarily eats primary consumers, which are typically herbivores. Carnivores fit this definition as they mainly consume the flesh of other animals. In an ecological context, the trophic levels are defined as follows: autotrophs, such as plants, occupy the first level as they produce their own food; primary consumers, or herbivores, are the second level as they eat the producers; secondary consumers, which are often carnivores, occupy the third level because they prey on primary consumers.

While omnivores—organisms that consume both plants and animals—are also classified as secondary consumers, they can also be primary consumers in certain contexts, depending on their dietary habits at any given time. Herbivores, on the other hand, are strictly primary consumers and do not classify as secondary consumers. Thus, the definition of a secondary consumer aligns best with carnivores, as they utilize primary consumers as their main source of nutrition.