Who Eats Whom?

A free interactive lesson on food chains — how energy flows from the Sun through plants to animals to decomposers and back to the soil. Learn about producers, herbivores, carnivores and decomposers. Class 4 Science. Includes a quick quiz.

Class 4 ScienceClass 4 / Grade 4Ages 6–9
Lesson
🦁 Who Eats Whom?
Everything eats something!☀️Sunenergy source🌿Grassplant🐇Rabbiteats grass🦊Foxeats rabbit🍄Fungibreaks downRemove one link and the whole chain is affected!

Every living thing needs energy to survive. Plants get energy from the Sun. Rabbits get energy by eating plants. Foxes get energy by eating rabbits. When the fox dies, fungi and bacteria break it down and return its nutrients to the soil, which feeds more plants. This is a food chain — a connected loop of energy flowing from one creature to the next.

What is a food chain?

A food chain shows who eats whom in an ecosystem. Energy flows from the Sun to plants (producers), then to animals that eat plants (herbivores), then to animals that eat other animals (carnivores). Decomposers break down dead matter and return nutrients to the soil, completing the cycle.

What happens if one link breaks?

Food chains are fragile. If rabbits disappeared, foxes would starve and grass would overgrow uncontrollably. If decomposers disappeared, the world would fill with dead matter. Every link in the chain matters — removing any species can have cascading effects throughout the ecosystem.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between a herbivore and a carnivore?

Herbivores eat only plants (cows, rabbits, deer). Carnivores eat only animals (lions, eagles, sharks). Omnivores eat both (humans, bears, crows).

What are decomposers?

Decomposers are organisms (fungi, bacteria, earthworms) that break down dead plants and animals into nutrients that return to the soil, enabling new plant growth.

Why are plants called producers?

Because they produce their own food using sunlight through photosynthesis — they do not need to eat other organisms. All other organisms in the food chain depend on this energy.

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