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Food Chain and Food Web

Herbivores, carnivores and omnivoresAll living things need food to survive.Plants can make their own food by using the energy from the sun. This process is called photosynthesis. animals cannot make their own food.Animals depend on plants and other animals for food.Plants are producers while animals are consumers.Based on their eating habits, animals can be divided into three groups:HerbivoresCarnivoresOmnivoresHerbivores are animals that eat plants only.For examples:- grasshoppers, caterpillars and rabbits.Carnivores are animals that only eat animals. Examples of animals is: snake, eagles, tiger, lion and frog.Omnivores are animals that eat both plants and animals. Examples of such animals are chicken, ducks, fish, and bears.Food chainA food chain shows the relationship betweenProducers and consumersConsumers and other consumersA food chain shows how one living things becomes a source of food for another.A food chain shows how energy is transferred from one organism to another.

Examples of food chain.

However, the relationship between each living thing in term of food source in a habitat is not as simple.Some times one food chain might link to another food chain.When two or more food chains are linked to each other, a food web is formed.

FOOD WEBA food web is formed when two or more chains found in a habitats are linked together.For examples, the following food chains can be found in a pond.

The following are examples of food webs that can be found in various habitats:a) Paddy field

School compound

Jungle

What happens when there is a change in the number of a certain species in a food webA food web is important because it controls the number of living things in a habitat.When the food web is not balanced, the population of animals can either become more or less depending on the type of food that the animals eat.