FOOD CHAINS for Kids Trophic Levels Episode 1

Smile and learn. Hello. Hello. How are you today? have question for you. Do you like food? love food. It gives us the energy we need to play, study, think, and be healthy. I'm sure you know that without food, no living thing can survive. Living things get energy from the food we eat. Some can produce their own food while others get energy by eating plants or other animals. The way energy passes from one living thing to another is called food chain. Have you ever heard of food chains? We are going to look at them now. But I'm getting little hungry. So, first I'm going to take bite of my lamb chops. yummy. So, what is food chain anyways? It's diagram that shows how living things are connected by what they eat. In other words, it tells us how plants and animals depend on each other for food. In fact, I'm part of food chain right now. Let's see what the food chain looks like when eat my lamb chops. At the first level, we have grass, plant that produces its own food through photosynthesis. Then on the second level, we have lamb which eats the grass. Finally, I'm on the last level because eat the meat from the lamb. There are many food chains. Let's look at another more complex example. Picture beautiful flower. When the flower needs energy, it makes it from the sun, water, and nutrients from the soil through photosynthesis. But along comes very hungry caterpillar and it eats the flower. And then along comes very, very hungry bird. So, it eats the caterpillar. But later, super hungry coyote comes along and eats the bird. Wow. Now, this story gets little sad, but it's something that happens to all living things. After long and happy life, our coyote dies. But don't worry, this is when things get interesting. Now it's time for the bacteria and fungi to do their job. We can't see them, but they're everywhere. They will eat the coyote's body. When they do so, they turn the coyote into nutrients that the plants can use to make their own food. Amazing, right? And so the food chain starts again. As you can see, food chains have different levels which we call trophic levels. Let's learn about them. Food chains can start with an autorophic plant or producer that makes its own food. In the example from before, the flower is our producer. But as we know not all living things can produce their own food. These living beings are called heterotroes and they eat other living things to get energy. Animals that eat producers are called primary consumers. In this food chain, the caterpillar is our primary consumer. Next, there are animals that eat the primary consumers. These are called secondary consumers, like the bird in this food chain. Then, animals that eat the secondary consumers are called tertiary consumers, like the coyote in our example. Finally, the fungi and bacteria that decompose the tertiary consumers when they die are the decomposers. Decomposers are very important because they restart the food chain. Thanks to them, it begins all over again. Remember that all living things need energy to live. food chain helps us to see where living things get their energy. There are different levels within food chains. Let's see if you can put them in order. Got it. Let's see if you have it right. First, we have the producers. Producers are eaten by primary consumers. Primary consumers are eaten by secondary consumers and secondary consumers are eaten by tertiary consumers. And who makes sure that the cycle starts all over again? Exactly, the decomposers. They do so by eating the tertiary consumers. Wow, food chains are so interesting, right? We've looked at couple of examples today, but remember that there are so many food chains on our planet. We'll discover them in the next episode. Don't miss it. See you then. We've learned so much in just one video. Did you know there are many more videos? Imagine how much you could learn. Subscribe to the Smile and Learn educational channel to learn and have fun at the same time.