Apex predator

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Apex predators (also alpha predators, superpredators, or top-level predators) are predators that as adults are not preyed upon in the wild under normal circumstances. Some can be superpredators in some environments but not others (e.g., tuna^{[citation needed]}). These species are often at the end of long food chains, where they have a crucial role in maintaining and determining the health of ecosystems. Even those not dangerous to humans (e.g., owls) are formidable predators in their respective niches.

Due to their placement atop the food chain, many (but not all) apex predators are also keystone predators. For instance, the Great White Shark is an apex predator, but it is not a keystone predator: it has not been demonstrated to regulate prey species within the ecosystem.^{[citation needed]} The gray wolf, on the other hand, is both an apex predator and a keystone predator, as it keeps populations of deer (or caribou), hares, and beavers in control.^{[citation needed]} Humans are themselves superpredators, and under some conditions, so are dogs, particularly if large, in packs, attack-trained, or fight-trained. Mutualistic collaborations between dogs and humans in shared hunting make them even more deadly than they would be singly.

[edit] In culture

Apex predators often have a special place in human culture and they have come to represent aspects of nature that humans find important and often appear in heraldry. A hawk appears on the national symbol of Egypt, and an owl represented the Athenian city-state. The eagle is the animal symbol of several European countries (such as Albania, Austria, Germany, Poland, Serbia and Russia), Indonesia, Mexico, and the United States of America; a lion has so served ancient Assyria and modern Great Britain, Bulgaria, Flanders, Finland, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Norway and Iran. Only slightly predatory but at the top of the food chain, giant pandas represent China at least in caricature. Tigers represent Korea, Bangladesh, India and Malaysia. Bears symbolize Russia. The toonie in Canada has the polar bear. The flag of the artificial Bantustan Bophuthatswana featured a leopard, and the flag of the short-lived Republic of California featured a grizzly bear (which remains on the flag of the U.S. State of California).

Some, such as tigers and lions, are hunted by humans for trophies or used in Chinese medicine.

Apex predators are often creatures of fearsome image in folklore and literature. The Big Bad Wolf of innumerable fairy tales, the Great White Whale of Moby Dick, the semi-legendary Kraken (a giant squid?) of nautical tales, the "Lions and tigers and bears—Oh, my!" of the dark woods of The Wizard of Oz, and the shark with an insatiable desire for human flesh in Jaws are all examples. In Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book, several species of superpredators, including Akela the wolf, Balloo the bear, Kaa the python, Bagheera the panther (really a melanistic leopard), the man-eating tiger Shere Khan, and the slow-to-develop human Mowgli interact, if (the last two excepted) with respect for the potential dangers of each other. Stephen King's large rabid St. Bernard dog Cujo demonstrates the dangers of any large predator that either never has or loses affection for or fear toward humans. Even the benign bottlenose dolphin Flipper is shown as a creature not to be treated maliciously because it can ram a wayward shark or alligator to death.