The Food Chain

We all need energy in order to live, as does every other living thing. Every time we do something (walk, run) we use energy to do so. All living things get energy from food. Energy is needed for living beings to grow.

A food chain shows how each living thing gets food. A food chain begins with plant life and ends with animal life. A simple food chain would be a flower to caterpillar to bird. A more complex chain would be grass to grasshopper to mouse to snake to hawk. After the hawk dies, decomposers like fungi break down the remains of the hawk and turn them into nutrients. Those are released into the soil and cause the grass to grow along with sun and water. This completes a whole circle of life and energy.

So a food chain makes a full circle. There can be a lot of links in the food chain, but if there are too many, the animal at the end will not get enough energy.

Eating low on the food chain is a good idea because if we eat the things in the middle, then the things on the next side of it will not have enough food to eat. For example, if we eat a lot of rabbits, then the next thing is wolves and the wolves won't have enough energy because they didn't get enough food and they will die and might become extinct.