Arctic Food Chains
All plants and animals require food which provides the energy they need to live. Everytime an
animal does something – running, jumping – they use energy to do so. For animals in cold regions
they use a lot of energy to keep warm too!
Now there are several things to think about. Is the
arctic fox the only animal that eats an arctic hare?
Is the arctic hare the only animal that eats grass?
Well we know they are not, there are several other
animals that eat grass and arctic hares!
All animals get energy from the food they eat, and all living things get energy from food. Plants
use water, sunlight and nutrients to get their energy (this is called photosynthesis).
For example: Grass > Reindeer > Arctic Wolf
Grass > Arctic Hare > Polar Bear
A food chain shows how each living thing gets its food, and how these nutrients and energy are
passed from animal to animal. They always begin with plant-life and end with animal-life. An arrow
in a food chain shows us who is eating whom – the arrow means ‘is eaten by’.
So we need to make something called a Food Web,
which shows us more animals that live in the Arctic
and see how lots of different food chains can come
together to make a food web.
Here is an example of an Arctic food chain:
You can see that the
grass is the start of the
food chain, as it has
created its energy from
the Sun, water and
nutrients. Then the grass
is eaten by the arctic
hare which transfers the
energy and nutrients
over to the hare. The
hare is then eaten by the
arctic fox, who now gets
the energy and nutrients
he needs to survive and
stay warm. Finally, the
arctic fox is eaten by an
arctic wolf.
A chain like this is made up
of several layers:
Polar bear
Wolf
The Producer
Plants are producers as they produce
their own energy from the sun, water
and nutrients.
Highest order
Consumers
Secondary
Consumers
Arctic Fox
The Plant Eaters
These are the animals that eat the
plants, also known as herbivores – like
our arctic hare.
Arctic Hare
The Primary Consumers
To consume something means to eat it.
the arctic fox is a primary consumer, as
it is the first animal in the chain to eat
another animal. These are carnivores.
The Secondary Consumer
The arctic wolf is a secondary consumer,
as it is the second animal in the chain to
eat another animal. Sometimes, when
these animals are the very last in the
chain, and there is very little that eats
them, they are called top predators.
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Here is an example of an Arctic Food Web:
Lemming
Caribou/
Reindeer
Primary
Consumers
Producers
Berries
Grass
You can see that several animals eat the same animals, and also that there are some predators
that are top predators, as there are no other animals in the Arctic that eat them – except when
they are hunted by humans!
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