The animal at the top of the food chain is called a “quaternary consumer.” Most of the time, these animals eat or hunt animals that are lower on the food chain than they are.
Hawks and white sharks, both of which eat meat, are examples of quaternary consumers. Sharks can eat seals, while hawks can eat snakes. Third-tier consumers are seals and snakes.
In an ecosystem’s food chain, there are different feeding levels, or trophic levels, such as primary producers, primary consumers, secondary consumers, tertiary consumers, and quaternary consumers. Most primary consumers are herbivores, but secondary consumers can be either carnivores or animals that eat both plants and animals.