Food Chain NB14

An herbivore that eats plants other than grasses like bush leaves, wildflowers, tree leaves, and stems.

• Examples:
• Beavers

A meat eater.

• Examples:
• owls
• wolves

Carrion is the bodies of dead animals, usually in the process of decay; not "fresh" meat.

When two or more organisms need the same resource. May be with animals of it's own kind (species) or with other species.

Example: Owls and Barn cats both eat mice. They are in competition for each other for the same food source. 

• Examples of resources they might compete for:
• food
• water
• habitat
• sun

Decomposing plant material.

A consumer uses the producer (a green plant) for its food; it may in turn be used as food by a secondary consumer.

• All animals are consumers.  
• Almost all plants are producers.

• Examples of primary consumers (herbivores):
• cows
• mice
• deer

• Examples of secondary consumers (carnivores):
• wolves
• mountain lions
• feral cats

A plant or animal (bacteria or fungi) which feed on dead material and converts it into inorganic materials (water, carbon dioxide, soil).

• The transfer of food energy from one organism to another.

Example: a green leaf plant-->a leaf eating insect (caterpillar)-->insect eating bird

• an interlocking pattern of food chains that exists in an ecosystem.

A living organism that lack chlorophyll; considered a decomposer.

• Examples:
•  molds
• rusts
• mildews
• smuts
• mushrooms
• yeasts

To feed on growing grass.

• Examples of grazers:
• deer
• cows

A plant eater.

• Examples:
• Deer
• Cows

An animal that eats both plants and animals.

An organism that benefits from another organism, doing harm to the organism from which it derives benefit.

The best example is a flea on a dog.  It lives on dog, get food from biting the dog and causes the dog harm by causing it itching, rashes and hair loss.

• Examples:
• leaches
• mistletoe
• fleas

an animal who kills and eats other animals.

• Examples:
• wolves
• hawks
• owls
• snakes

Animals that are killed and eaten by other animals.

• Examples:
• mice
• rabbits
• birds

Green plants that make food (e.g. sugar) out of simple organic substances (carbon dioxide, sunlight, water)

Birds that are predatory, preying upon other animals.

• Examples:
• Eagles
• Hawks
• Owls

an organism that gets its food by absorbing the products of decomposition (decaing organic mater).

• Examples:
• mushrooms

An organism that habitually eats carrion (dead animals).

• Examples:
• Coyotes and magpies are part-time scavengers;
• a vulture is a full-time