Feeding Relationships Worksheet

Feeding relationships sounds like a weird title - is that the relationship between a shipwrecked sailor and a cannibal? Or perhaps it's someone who's a vegetarian in a relationship with a meat-eater?

In fact, it's neither of these! This worksheet will explore what feeds on what, and why, and how they are adapted to do so. It will also look at the differences between documenting food relationships, using food chains, webs and pyramids. It will also introduce the idea of energy transfer through feeding.

So, let's get our teeth into it!

First of all let's look at some differences between the predator and its prey, thinking about birds and mammals in this case. Predators and prey have different adaptations which are specific to them, and some adaptations which they have both developed.

Below is a list of adaptations. You need to drag PREDATOR, PREY or BOTH next to each one according to which you think that adaptation applies to.

If you can't see the whole sentences in the boxes on the left, hover your mouse over them.

Column A	Column B
sharp claws	PREDATOR
eyes on side of head for all-round vision	PREY
excellent hearing and sense of smell	PREDATOR
excellent camouflage	BOTH
eyes facing forward	BOTH
canine teeth in mammals	PREDATOR

What is the name given to an organism that manufactures its own food?

herbivore

vegetarian

producer

What name is given to an organism that feeds on animals?

carnivore

herbivore

producer

A good way of showing 'what eats what' is to place them into a food chain.

Here are four inhabitants of a freshwater habitat:

River organisms

Match each organism to its correct place in the food chain by dragging it next to its feeding description.

Column A	Column B
producer	TADPOLE
herbivore	PIKE
second consumer	ALGAE
top predator	STICKLEBACK

You chose one of the animals in Q4 as a secondary consumer. Which ONE of the following is NOT a correct way of describing its feeding relationship in this food chain?

carnivore

predator

prey

omnivore

Here is a food chain from a woodland:


OAK LEAF		APHID (greenfly)		LADYBIRD		BLACKBIRD

What is the importance of the arrows in a food chain?

they show what eats what

they show which way the energy is travelling

they show where the food goes

A more realistic situation in any habitat is a FOOD WEB as it represents the number of feeding relationships. Here is a food web from the wood:

Food web

For example you can see that, as well as feeding on ladybirds, blackbirds also eat caterpillars and woodbeetles. See whether you can work out which animal in the food web is being described by its feeding relationships here:

This animal eats caterpillars, woodbeetles and snails and is preyed on by the hawk.

Use the food web above to work out which animal this is.

ladybird

blackbird

thrush

Here is the food web again:

Food web

One food chain from this web we have already explored:


OAK LEAF		APHID (greenfly)		LADYBIRD		BLACKBIRD

What is the TOTAL number of food chains (including the one above) that you can find in the whole food web?

4

5

6

7

Food web

If an insecticide was sprayed on a nearby field but was blown by the wind into this oak tree, which organisms might be AFFECTED (note that word carefully!).

just the insects

tree, insects and snails

tree, insects and birds

all of them

One further way of showing feeding relationships between organisms is to use a pyramid of numbers.

Look at this food pyramid from a field:

Food pyramid

One of the organisms forms the foundation on which the pyramid is built and on which it depends. Which organism is that?

producer

herbivore

carnivore

ANSWERS

Question 1

First of all let's look at some differences between the predator and its prey, thinking about birds and mammals in this case. Predators and prey have different adaptations which are specific to them, and some adaptations which they have both developed.

Below is a list of adaptations. You need to drag PREDATOR, PREY or BOTH next to each one according to which you think that adaptation applies to.

If you can't see the whole sentences in the boxes on the left, hover your mouse over them.

CORRECT ANSWER

Column A	Column B
sharp claws	PREDATOR
eyes on side of head for all-roun...	PREY
excellent hearing and sense of sm...	BOTH
excellent camouflage	BOTH
eyes facing forward	PREDATOR
canine teeth in mammals	PREDATOR

EDDIE SAYS

Some of those were quite tricky! Predators often have sharp claws to capture prey, forward facing eyes (good for judging distance) and mammals have canine teeth for holding on to prey and ripping flesh. Prey, on the other hand, need to be aware of attack and often have side-mounted eyes (like sheep), giving them a brilliant field of view. Both of them often use good camouflage and excellent senses either to capture prey or to attempt to avoid capture.

ANSWERS

Question 2

What is the name given to an organism that manufactures its own food?

CORRECT ANSWER

producer

EDDIE SAYS

A producer is the 'food chain' name given to plants, because they photosynthesise and make their own food (which feeds the food chain) from sunshine and simple chemicals.

ANSWERS

Question 3

What name is given to an organism that feeds on animals?

CORRECT ANSWER

carnivore

EDDIE SAYS

An organism that feeds on animals must be a carnivore - that is a meat-eater, like a tiger, a spider or a jellyfish.

ANSWERS

Question 4

A good way of showing 'what eats what' is to place them into a food chain.

Here are four inhabitants of a freshwater habitat:

River organisms

Match each organism to its correct place in the food chain by dragging it next to its feeding description.

CORRECT ANSWER

Column A	Column B
producer	ALGAE
herbivore	TADPOLE
second consumer	STICKLEBACK
top predator	PIKE

EDDIE SAYS

So, the algae makes the food by photosynthesis (producer) and it is fed on by the tadpole (so that's a herbivore) which, in turn, is eaten by the stickleback (so that's the second consumer, a carnivore). Finally that is eaten by the pike and, as nothing eats it, it is the Top Predator.

ANSWERS

Question 5

You chose one of the animals in Q4 as a secondary consumer. Which ONE of the following is NOT a correct way of describing its feeding relationship in this food chain?

CORRECT ANSWER

omnivore

EDDIE SAYS

The stickleback is the secondary consumer in this food chain: it feeds on the tadpole (carnivore/predator) and is fed on by the pike (prey) so it is NOT an omnivore (eats plants and animals).

ANSWERS

Question 6

Here is a food chain from a woodland:


OAK LEAF		APHID (greenfly)		LADYBIRD		BLACKBIRD

What is the importance of the arrows in a food chain?

CORRECT ANSWER

they show which way the energy is travelling

EDDIE SAYS

The arrows in a food chain are all about energy: the producer makes the energy that feeds the food chain and the arrows are simply showing the transfer of that energy from organism to organism.

ANSWERS

Question 7

A more realistic situation in any habitat is a FOOD WEB as it represents the number of feeding relationships. Here is a food web from the wood:

Food web

For example you can see that, as well as feeding on ladybirds, blackbirds also eat caterpillars and woodbeetles. See whether you can work out which animal in the food web is being described by its feeding relationships here:

This animal eats caterpillars, woodbeetles and snails and is preyed on by the hawk.

Use the food web above to work out which animal this is.

CORRECT ANSWER

thrush

EDDIE SAYS

If you follow the arrows from the snail, the caterpillar and the woodbeetle you can see that they all go to the thrush which is then eaten by the hawk.

ANSWERS

Question 8

Here is the food web again:

Food web

One food chain from this web we have already explored:


OAK LEAF		APHID (greenfly)		LADYBIRD		BLACKBIRD

What is the TOTAL number of food chains (including the one above) that you can find in the whole food web?

CORRECT ANSWER

6

EDDIE SAYS

If you count carefully you can see three going through the blackbird to the hawk and another three going through the thrush to the hawk - that's six in all.

ANSWERS

Question 9

Food web

If an insecticide was sprayed on a nearby field but was blown by the wind into this oak tree, which organisms might be AFFECTED (note that word carefully!).

CORRECT ANSWER

all of them

EDDIE SAYS

So, the insecticide is an insect-killer: that takes out the beetles, caterpillars, ladybirds and aphids. The birds would definitely be AFFECTED by this because their prey would almost disappear, so they'd need to move to a different part of the wood that hadn't been sprayed or eat animals that had not been killed by the spray, e.g. snails.. The tree would have fewer animals feeding on it, so more leaves would appear without being scoffed! Basically, when you tweak one strand in a spider's web, the whole web wobbles - that's why these things are called FOOD WEBS!

ANSWERS

Question 10

One further way of showing feeding relationships between organisms is to use a pyramid of numbers.

Look at this food pyramid from a field:

Food pyramid

One of the organisms forms the foundation on which the pyramid is built and on which it depends. Which organism is that?

CORRECT ANSWER

producer

EDDIE SAYS

Remember that the producer makes ALL the energy that feeds the food chain? So then, it must be the foundation for the whole thing - that's why it is called a producer - it produces all the food (in a way, it produces the food chain itself!). Later on we'll explore the significance of the pyramid and why it takes so many plants to feed 10 rabbits.