Biology Activity: Food Web Puzzle & Energy Pyramids
Name:____________________________________
African Savannah: The African Savannah is vast grassland with occasional trees such as baobabs and acacias. The
savannah has a wet and a dry season and occasional fires. Animals that live here are adapted to the different seasons and
often migrate from one part of the savannah to another in order to find water. Though this grassland may appear desolate,
African is home to the most diverse mammals: over 1,570!
Lion: With my help from the other lions in my group or pride I kill large animals such as wildebeest and zebra and share
them with other lions.
Leopard: I eat warthogs, wildebeasts small mammals and birds – whatever I can see from my perch in a tree.
Cheetah: I eat such animals as rabbits, antelope, gazelles and ostriches.
Crowned crane: I eat seeds, grain, insects, frogs, worms, snakes, small fish and eggs.
Zebra: I like to spend my entire day grazing and eat primarily grass.
Wildebeest: I often follow after zebra and eat what they leave behind including grasses and small shrubs.
Giraffe: I prefer to eat leaves off of tall trees like acacias or occasionally some tall grasses.
Flamingo: I eat blue-green algae from the mud and water of the savannah.
Thompson’s gazelle: I eat grasses alongside the zebra and wildebeest.
Grasshopper: I eat grasses and plant leaves. Can be omnivorous.
Nigriceps ant: I eat the sugary sap off of whistling thorn acacias where I make a nest and protect the tree from any attacks
by such animals as giraffe.
Warthog: omnivorous, eats grasses, roots, berries and other fruits, bark, fungi, insects, eggs and carrion
Your group needs to work together to form a food web of the animals you were given.
Procedure
1) Draw a BIG sun in the middle of your paper.
2) Cut out the pictures. Cut around the name of each organism so they are easy to identify.
3) Paste the pictures onto your paper around the initial source of energy (the sun).
4) Decide and label whether each plant or animal is a producer, herbivore, carnivore or omnivore from the
descriptions. Write the label on each picture.
5) Make connections between the animals and plants that are likely connected in the Sonoran Desert food web. Draw
arrows to indicate energy flow. BE CAREFUL – make sure your arrows are pointing the correct direction.
6) Find TWO food chains within the food web created. Label each organism in the TWO food chain with the
appropriate trophic level. You should have at least one food chain with FOUR trophic levels.
7) Obtain teacher approval.
8) Answer the analysis questions.
Analysis
1. Using the food chain with FOUR trophic levels, place the organisms within the energy pyramid below.
Don’t forget labels.
2. On the bottom level of the energy pyramid created, write “9,000 kcal” . This is the amount of available
energy that level possesses. Label how much energy is transferred to each of the other three levels.
3. What happens to the amount of energy as you go up the energy pyramid? Be specific as possible.
4. Why doesn’t each trophic level receive ALL of the energy from the trophic level below it?
5. How is an energy pyramid different than a food chain or food web?
6. Why is it very unlikely for a food chain to be more than 10 “links” long? Think about your answer to
#3.
7. Where could decomposers or scavengers fit into the food web that you created?
Whistling-thorn acacia
Lion
Crowned crane
Cheetah
Leopard
Zebra
Wildebeest
Flamingo
Baobab
Grasshopper
Thompson’s gazelle
Giraffe
Red oat grass
Prairie sky switch grass
Nigriceps ant
Pennisetum grass
Fountain grass
Acacia
Warthog
Ostrich
Bird
Blue-Green Algae