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


A simple food chain links grass to grasshopper, grasshopper to frog, frog to snake.
The diagram of the food chain shows that grasshoppers eat grass, frogs eat grasshoppers, and snakes eat frogs.

• A food chain always starts with a green plant. All plants are PRODUCERS because they make their own food using sunlight, soil, and other elements.


• All the animals in a food chain are CONSUMERS


• A food chain ends with a predator. The predator is at the top of the food chain.


• Humans are at the end of the food chain. They eat both plants and animals that have consumed other forms of energy.

Most animals are part of more than one food chain and eat more than one kind of food in order to meet their food and energy requirements. These interconnected food chains from a food web. A food web shows how plants and animals are connected in many ways to help them all survive.