Question

One food chain shows that grasshoppers eat grass, rats eat the grasshoppers, and raccoons eat the rats. A homeowner Introduces rat polson to the system that causes rats to die. What will happen to grasshopper and raccoon populations in the area?

Answer 1

This is a classic food chain. The higher consumers rely on the lower consumers for nutrients and thus survival. In this case, if you take out the middle step of the rats, the raccoons will have less food so their population size will decrease. However, now that grasshoppers are missing a predator, their populations will greatly increase.

Primary consumer (grasshopper) —> secondary consumer (rat) —> tertiary consumer (raccoon)