Question

directions read the paragraph. then study the food web and answer the questions.
a food chain simplifies the relationships in an ecosystem. it may show one item that a predator eats, or one item a prey animal eats. yet, like you, most animals eat more than one type of food. a food web shows more of these complicated relationships. in a food web, arrows point toward the organism with the higher trophic level. for example, the food web below shows how the animals in a forest ecosystem are interrelated. arrows indicate that the rabbit eats plants, and so it has a higher trophic level than the plants. use the food web below to answer the questions.

1. which animals eat only plants?
2. which animals are predators? which are prey? which animal is both? which is neither?
3. which has a higher trophic level: the snake or the hawk? explain how you know.
4. which prey animal has the most predators? explain how you know.

Explanation:

1. For the first question:

• In a food - web, animals that eat only plants are herbivores. By looking at the arrows in the food - web that point from plants to other organisms, we can identify deer and rabbit as they have arrows only from plants (indicating they consume only plants).

1. For the second question:

• Predators: Coyote, fox, hawk. These animals have arrows pointing from other animals (their prey) to them. For example, coyote has an arrow from mouse (coyote preys on mouse).
• Prey: Mouse, rabbit, deer. These animals have arrows pointing from them to other animals (predators). For example, mouse has an arrow to coyote and snake.
• Both predator and prey: Snake. Snake preys on mouse (arrow from mouse to snake) and is preyed on by hawk (arrow from snake to hawk).
• Neither: Plants. Plants are producers and not in the predator - prey category in the traditional sense as described in the context (they are at the base of the food - web and are consumed, not consuming other animals).

1. For the third question:

• The hawk has a higher trophic level. In a food - web, arrows point from lower to higher trophic levels. Since there is an arrow from snake to hawk (hawk preys on snake), the hawk is at a higher trophic level.

1. For the fourth question:

• Rabbit. By counting the number of arrows pointing from the rabbit to other animals (predators). The rabbit has arrows to fox and coyote (assuming no other predators in the given web, if we consider the basic web structure).

Answer:

1. Deer and rabbit.
2. Predators: Coyote, fox, hawk; Prey: Mouse, rabbit, deer; Both: Snake; Neither: Plants.
3. The hawk. Because there is an arrow from snake to hawk (hawk preys on snake), indicating a higher trophic level.
4. Rabbit. By counting the number of arrows from the rabbit to predators (e.g., fox and coyote in the given web).