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Food Chains and Food Webs
Dayna Lee Martinez
STARS-USF
Maniscalco
Producers
• Plants are called producers. This is because
they produce their own food! They do this by
using light energy from the Sun, carbon
dioxide from the air and water from the soil to
produce food - in the form of glucose/sugar.
The process is called photosynthesis
Photosynthesis
Consumers
• Animals are called consumers. This is because they
cannot make their own food, so they need to consume
(eat) plants and/or animals.
• Consumers are divided into three categories
– Carnivores
– Herbivores
– Omnivores
Is it a carnivore, herbivore or
omnivore?
• http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/content/a
nimals/kidscorner/games/animaldietgame.ht
m
Are they producers, consumers or
decomposers?
• http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/content/a
nimals/kidscorner/games/producersconsumer
sgame.htm
Predator/Prey Relationship
• In Nature's plan, there is no such thing as a
good or bad animal.
• There are only those animals that kill to eat
(predators) and those that are killed and eaten
(prey).
Predator/Prey Relationship
•
Is there really any difference between
a hungry mountain lion stalking,
killing, and eating a deer and a hunter
stalking, shooting, and taking a deer
home for his family to eat?
•
Both the mountain lion and the
human hunter are predators, using
the deer for food. You may think that
since you are not a hunter, you are
not a predator.
•
How about the beef, pork, lamb, fish,
or chicken you eat each day? Just
because you do not kill the animal
yourself does not make you less of a
predator. You are still an animal
eating the flesh of another animal to
satisfy your hunger.
Predator/Prey Relationship
• How many of you stopped to realize that a lizard that eats insects is
also a predator?
• You may be thinking at this point that the predator has the best life,
with nothing to worry about except catching its next meal. But did you
know that many animals are both predators and prey?
• When a spider is sitting in its web waiting for its insect meal, it is the
predator. However, if a lizard's tongue darts out and catches the spider,
the spider becomes the lizard's prey. The predatory lizard may then be
swallowed by a roadrunner, which may later be caught and eaten by a
coyote. The wandering coyote may fall victim to the greatest predator
of all, man.
Predator/Prey Game
Food Chains
• Every living thing needs energy in order to live. Every time
animals do something (run, jump) they use energy to do so.
• Animals get energy from the food they eat, and all living
things get energy from food. Plants use sunlight, water and
nutrients to get energy (in a process called photosynthesis).
Energy is necessary for living beings to grow.
• A food chain shows how each living thing gets food, and
how nutrients and energy are passed from creature to
creature. Food chains begin with plant-life, and end with
animal-life. Some animals eat plants, some animals eat
other animals.
Food Chains
A simple food chain could start with grass,
which is eaten by rabbits. Then the rabbits
are eaten by foxes.
Other Food Chains Examples
What eats what?
• http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/content/a
nimals/kidscorner/games/foodchaingame.htm
Food Webs
Food webs are a series of linked food chains.
Let’s Make a Food Web
• http://teacher.scholastic.com/ACTIVITIES/expl
orer/ecosystems/be_an_explorer/map/foodw
eb_play.htm