It is common to think about animals and plants as links in a food chain, with Producers (like plants) at the bottom, Consumers (like herbivores and omnivores) in the middle, and Predators (like carnivores) at the top. While the idea of a food chain helps us to understand the different roles within an ecosystem, it is much more accurate to think about all these animals and plants as part of a big, interconnected food web. After all, there are plenty of different herbivores out there, and most predators will eat a variety of different animals, not just one!

A Food Web

Seeing how all these different animals interact with each other and with their environment is key to understanding the wider ecology of a habitat, or country, or even a whole planet.