The food chain shows how each living thing gets its food and how each living thing is linked to another.

For example, a simple food chain links the trees & shrubs, the deer (that eat sagebrush, grass and forbes), and the mountain lions (that eat the deer).

Each link in this chain is food for the next link.

A food chain always starts with plant life and ends with an animal.

Animals that eat only plants are called herbivores.

Animals that eat other animals are called carnivores. Animals that eat both plant and and animals are call ominvores.

In the food chain world animals are either predators or prey. Both predators and prey are an important part of nature.

• A predator is an animal that likes to eat other animals.
• Prey is an animal that is eaten by other animals.