apex predator

English

Etymology

From apex +‎ predator.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

apex predator (plural apex predators)

1. An animal atop the food chain, preying on another animals, and not itself preyed upon.
   • a. 2007, Martha Hiatt, quoted in, 2007, Wendell Jamieson, Father Knows Less, or, "Can I cook my sister?", Putnam, →ISBN, page 203,

     Killer whales are the oceans' apex predators, which means they are at the top of the food chain.

   • 2017 April 2, Tim Carvell, Josh Gondelman, Dan Gurewitch, Jeff Maurer, Ben Silva, Will Tracy, Jill Twiss, Seena Vali, Julie Weiner, “Marijuana”, in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, season 4, episode 7, John Oliver (actor), Warner Bros. Television, via HBO:

     And marijuana is not a Schedule I any more than a hedgehog is an apex predator. “You’re not scaring anyone, Roland. Get a tattoo.”

   • 2023 March 4, Jack Tamisiea, “Dunk Was Chunky, but Still Deadly”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:

     With a bite that could split a shark in two and an armored mug only a mother could love, Dunkleosteus was one of Earth’s earliest apex predators, terrorizing subtropical seas 360 million years ago during the Devonian Period.

   • 2025 October 15, Virginia Giuffre, “‘Prince Andrew believed having sex with me was his birthright’: Virginia Giuffre on her abuse at the hands of Epstein, Maxwell and the king’s brother”, in The Guardian‎, →ISSN:

     Alessi did as he was told, and I found out later that [Ghislaine] Maxwell got out and followed me. I didn’t know it yet, but an apex predator was closing in.

Usage notes

Apex predators still have parasites, and these may include micropredators.

Translations

an animal atop the food chain

Arabic: please add this translation if you can Chinese: Mandarin: 頂級掠食者 / 顶级掠食者 (dǐngjí lüèshízhě) Danish: please add this translation if you can Dutch: toproofdier n Esperanto: please add this translation if you can Finnish: huippusaalistaja, huippupeto French: superprédateur (fr) m German: Spitzenprädator (de) m Greek: κορυφαίο αρπακτικό n (koryfaío arpaktikó) Hebrew: טורף־על m (toréf-al) Hindi: please add this translation if you can Hungarian: csúcsragadozó (hu) Italian: superpredatore m Japanese: 頂点捕食者 (chōten hoshokusha) Korean: 최상위 포식자 (choesang'wi posikja), 정점 포식자 (jeongjeom posikja) Latin: please add this translation if you can Norwegian: Bokmål: toppkonsument m Nynorsk: toppkonsument m Persian: please add this translation if you can Polish: drapieżnik szczytowy m, drapieżnik alfa m Portuguese: superpredador m Russian: сверххи́щник m (sverxxíščnik), вы́сший хи́щник m (výsšij xíščnik), суперхи́щник m (superxíščnik) Spanish: superdepredador m Swedish: toppkonsument (sv) c Ukrainian: please add this translation if you can Vietnamese: please add this translation if you can

Further reading

• apex predator on Wikipedia.Wikipedia