Are ringed seals producer or consumer?

Are ringed seals producer or consumer?

Ringed seals are both predators and prey. A predator to zooplankton and fish, the ringed seal is considered a primary consumer as well as a secondary consumer.

What type of consumer is a seal?

An ecosystem must contain producers, consumers, decomposers, and dead and inorganic matter. Seals are an example of consumers. They are unable to make their own food and so must eat other animals.

What are ringed seals predators?

Ringed seals are the most common prey of polar bears; in fact, a polar bear may kill a ringed seal every 2 to 6 days. Ringed seals are also preyed upon by walruses and killer whales. Pups are eaten by polar bears, arctic foxes, red foxes, and ravens. Arctic foxes and polar bears can locate seal lairs by smell.

Are ringed seals omnivores or carnivores?

Omnivorous
Ringed seal/Trophic level

Are ringed seals friendly?

Ringed Seals are generally solo by nature. They hunt alone and when they haul up onto ice to rest they will separate themselves. The only time they come together is during mating season when they may set up their lairs in closer proximity to each other.

Is a leopard seal a secondary consumer?

The primary consumers , a krill, cod, and squid, then get energy from the producers causing its secondary consumers, a penguin, leopard seal, and an elephant seal to get energy from it too. The teritiary consumer is the killer whale.

Do polar bears eat ringed seals?

Unlike other bear species, polar bears are almost exclusively meat eaters (carnivorous). They mainly eat ringed seals, but may also eat bearded seals. Polar bears hunt seals by waiting for them to come to the surface of sea ice to breathe. They also eat walruses and whale carcasses.

How many babies can a ringed seal have?

Reproduction. Females reach sexual maturity at about six years old. After mating, implantation is delayed for several weeks. Then, following a gestation period of 9 to 11 months, the female gives birth to one pup, raising it within the seclusion of a lair.

How are ringed seals affected by sea ice?

Without access to sea ice, ringed seals are unable to sustain life, which further affects trophic levels both above and below. Ringed seals are both predators and prey. A predator to zooplankton and fish, the ringed seal is considered a primary consumer as well as a secondary consumer.

Can a ringed seal be harvested in the United States?

Although subsistence harvest of Arctic ringed seals occurs in some parts of this subspecies’ range, harvest levels appear to be sustainable. While the United States does not allow commercial harvest of marine mammals, such harvests are permitted in other portions of the species’ range.

Who is the biggest predator of ringed seals?

Typically about 5 feet (1.5 m) long, the ringed seal is known to be solitary with their main predator being polar bears. Recently, however, the biggest predator to ringed seals has been the changing temperature in the Arctic and the detrimental changes to sea ice that follow.

Where do ringed seals get their name from?

Ringed seals are the smallest and most common Arctic seal. They get their name from the small, light-colored circles, or rings, that are scattered throughout the darker hair on their backs. Ringed seals are circumpolar and are found in all seasonally ice-covered seas of the Northern Hemisphere and in certain freshwater lakes.