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Food Chains and Food Webs

Dayna Lee MartinezSTARS-USFManiscalco

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/animals/kidscorner/games/animaldietgame.htm

Are they producers, consumers or decomposers?

• http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/content/animals/kidscorner/games/producersconsumersgame.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/animals/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/explorer/ecosystems/be_an_explorer/map/foodweb_play.htm