A food chain shows what eats what. It always starts with a plant, because plants make their own food using sunlight. Plants are called producers. Animals cannot make their own food, so they are consumers: they eat plants or other animals.
The arrows in a food chain point from the food to the animal that eats it. They show the way the energy goes. In 'grass → rabbit → fox', the rabbit eats the grass and the fox eats the rabbit. An animal that eats plants is a herbivore, one that eats animals is a carnivore, and one that eats both is an omnivore. A predator hunts other animals, which are its prey.
Worked example
In 'leaf → caterpillar → bird → cat', which animals are prey?
- Prey are animals that get eaten.
- The caterpillar is eaten by the bird; the bird is eaten by the cat.
Answer:So the caterpillar and the bird are prey.
Key words
- producer
- a living thing that makes its own food, such as a plant
- consumer
- an animal that eats other living things
- predator
- an animal that hunts others
- prey
- an animal that is hunted
New questions every time.
NGSS-referenced: 5-LS2-1