Food Chains

A food chain shows how each living thing gets its food. Some animals eat plants and some animals eat other animals.

Each link in this chain is food for the next link. A food chain always starts with plant life and ends with an animal.
Plants are called producers because they are able to use light energy from the Sun to produce food (sugar) from carbon dioxide and water.
Animals cannot make their own food so they must eat plants and/or other animals. They are called consumers. There are three groups of consumers.
Animals that eat ONLY PLANTS are called herbivores (or primary consumers).
Animals that eat OTHER ANIMALS are called carnivores.
carnivores that eat herbivores are called secondary consumers
carnivores that eat other carnivores are called tertiary consumerse.g., killer whales in an ocean food web ... phytoplankton → small fishes → seals → killer whales
Animals and people who eat BOTH animals and plants are called omnivores.