High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Apex predators (also known as alpha, super-, or top- level predators) are predators that have virtually no predators of their own, residing at the top of their food chain. Apex predator species are often at the top of long food chains, where they have a crucial role in maintaining the health of their ecosystems. Predation in its zoological sense is the killing and consumption of another organism, which excludes bacteria and parasites from the apex predator concept. Predation has been defined in this sense since 1932. The apex predator concept is commonly applied in wildlife management and conservation, as well as eco-tourism. In these contexts it has been defined in terms of trophic levels. Trophic levels are "hierarchical strata of a food web characterized by organisms which are the same number of steps removed from the primary producers." Primary, secondary, tertiary, and higher level consumers occupy successive trophic levels. One study of marine food webs defined apex predators as greater than trophic level four.

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