Food chains — Science, 7–10 years
Living things depend on one another for food and energy. A food chain shows one path through an ecosystem, from a plant to animals that eat it and then to other animals.
Who eats whom?
A food chain follows energy as food passes between living things. Plants make their own food using sunlight, so they often begin the chain. An animal eats a plant or another animal, and arrows point from the food to the eater: grass → rabbit → fox.
Why draw food chains?
A forest or pond can seem like a collection of separate creatures. Food chains reveal the connections that keep them alive and show why a change to one population can affect others. Scientists use them to ask better questions about habitats, without pretending that nature follows only one simple line.
A meadow chain
Start with 100 leaves on a plant. A caterpillar eats some leaves, and a bird eats the caterpillar. The arrows are plant → caterpillar → bird, because energy moves from the food to the eater. If there are fewer plants, caterpillars may have less food, and birds may then find fewer caterpillars.
The arrow has a direction
Many people point the arrow towards what is being eaten, because we often follow an animal’s attention to its food. In a food chain, the arrow means “energy goes to”. So grass → rabbit means the rabbit gets energy from the grass; it does not mean the grass eats the rabbit.
Protecting habitats
When people protect a wetland, hedgerow or pond, they protect many feeding links at once. Keeping plants, insects, birds and predators together can support a healthier habitat. A food chain is a useful clue, but real habitats contain many chains joined into a food web.
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