Describe the role of each of the following top consumers in their habitat.

Explain how their

removal affects the balance in the ecosystem. Leopard, owl, shark and starfish.
o Leopard: They are a species of feline cats and solitary animals. Furthermore, they are
highly adept ambush predators known for their abilities. They are the largest predators
in the ecosystem, they play a key role in maintaining its environment healthy and
sustainable. First, they eliminate unhealthy animals from its habitat, decreasing the
number of population of herbivores. The reason why they need to keep control on this
situation is because if there is an overgrowth of wild herbivores it can cause distinct
critical problems. At the same time having a balanced quantity of wild herbivores is
essential as it can avoid spreading diseases and maintains healthful the population. In
case that the leopards will became extinct, the animals they are used to eat will
become overpopulated. Then, there will end up in starvation for some of those species
as there won´t be enough food to sustain them all.
o Owl: Owls belong to a group of birds called Strigiformes. All owls are predators,
meanwhile they depend on other animals for food. They hold a position at the top of
the food chain as only a few predators feed on owls. However, owls are used to feed
other predators specially bats, weasels and shrews. As mentioned before, most
wildlife populations produce more offspring than their habitat can support.
Consequently, owls are crucial as they remove individuals from prey populations that
can be considered surplus. Owls help maintain stable the viability of preys as they
tend to remove the weaker members of a population because they are the easiest to
catch. If owls were removed from the food chain the lifecycle of that environment
will extremely be harmed as they all depend on each other to be able to work
properly.
o Shark: Sharks are apex predators that play a vital role in their ecosystem. They are
used to serve as an indicator for ocean health this includes maintain the species below
them in the food chain alive. They shift their preys which alters the feeding strategy of
other animals. Moreover, they keep balance with competitors to ensure the species
diversity. In case that sharks will became extinct, the rest of aquatic predators will
feed on the herbivores without showing any control. Therefore, this will affect the
survival of the reef system.
o Starfish: A starfish is a marine invertebrate. They are considered the most important
in the shallow ecosystem because their feeding activities control the whole ecosystem.
They eat anything that they can come across. If something was interfered with the
normal behavior of this keystone species it would affect the whole ecosystem. The
reason of this is because if this happens it will have a disproportionately effect
because you are removing a key piece of the ecosystem.