apex predator

[ey-peks pred-uh-ter, -tawr]

noun

1. a carnivore that preys on other animals but has no natural predators of its own; the predator at the top of a particular food chain.

   Sharks fill an important ecological niche as apex predators, keeping the population of other species from exploding.

Word History and Origins

Origin of apex predator¹

First recorded in 1960–65

Example Sentences

Swimming with the birds made me feel like I, too, was a wild creature — another element in the web of life rather than the apex predator detached from the natural world that I usually am in my everyday urban existence.

From Los Angeles Times

Swimming with the birds made me feel like I, too, was a wild creature — another element in the web of life rather than the apex predator detached from the natural world that I usually am in my everyday urban existence.

From Los Angeles Times

Hasan is like an apex predator when it comes to shredding bad‑faith, racist arguments.

From Slate

“They’re always sort of an apex predator existing in a space with no other wildlife, really. And I was interested in that idea of if you’re going to bring these creatures to a terrestrial environment, how are they going to change it? How are other creatures, bugs and any of it going to interact with them?”

From Salon

Sharks had been swimming in the culture before that, to be sure, often with the prefix “man-eating” appended, though men eat sharks too, and way more often — so who’s the real apex predator?

From Los Angeles Times