What is a food chain?

All living things need to consume something like food for energy. Because of this, all living things are part of a food chain.

All living things need energy from food to grow, repair themselves and reproduce. Plants get their energy from sunlight in photosynthesis. Animals need to eat plants or other animals to get their energy.

The flow of energy from one living thing to another is shown in the arrows in a food chain.

In the food chain below, the arrows represent the flow of energy.

Plants are at the beginning of most food chains. They are called producers because they make their own food.

Any animal which eats a producer is called a primary consumer. The rabbits in the food chains below are primary consumers. All primary consumers are herbivores because they only eat plants.

Secondary consumers eat primary consumers. All secondary consumers are predators because they kill and eat other animals. The fox is the secondary consumer and also a predator. The rabbits are their prey. The animal at the top of the food chain is called the top predator.

Changes in food chains affect all the living things in them, so if the rabbits became sick and started to die, the foxes would have less to eat and may die as well, but more grass could grow, as less rabbits are eating it. All living things in a food chain depend on each other.

Compare these two food chains. What do they have in common?

Two of these food chains have the same producer and top predator. They can be joined together into a food web.