Animal Groups
A fish has a backbone. Does this make it a vertebrate or an invertebrate?
Vertebrate
A kangaroo eats grass and leaves. Is it a carnivore, herbivore or omnivore?
Herbivore.
A grass plant makes its own food using sunlight. What is its role in a food chain?
Producer.
What is the main source of energy for most food chains?
The Sun.
What do we call an animal that hunts and eats another animal?
A predator.
An animal has six legs, antennae and three main body sections. Which animal group does it belong to?
Insects.
A chicken eats seeds, worms and insects. How would you classify it?
Omnivore.
A grasshopper eats grass. What is the grasshopper called in this food chain?
Primary consumer.
Complete this food chain: grass → rabbit → ______. Name one animal that could go in the blank.
Fox, dingo or another animal that eats rabbits.
In this example, a fox hunts and eats a rabbit. Which animal is the predator and which is the prey?
Fox = predator; rabbit = prey.
A bat and a bird both have wings. Give one other feature that helps you tell them apart.
A bat has fur and feeds its young milk. A bird has feathers.
A lion eats a zebra. A zebra eats grass. Which animal is the carnivore, and which is the herbivore?
Lion: carnivore. Zebra: herbivore.
In the chain grass → grasshopper → frog → snake, which animal is the secondary consumer? Explain why.
The frog, because it eats the primary consumer, the grasshopper.
In the chain grass → grasshopper → frog, which way should the arrows point? What do the arrows show?
Grass → grasshopper → frog. The arrows show the direction energy moves as one organism is eaten by another.
A rabbit spots a fox nearby and runs into a burrow. How does this behaviour help the rabbit survive?
It helps the rabbit escape the predator and avoid being eaten.
A whale lives in the ocean, but it is not a fish. Give two clues that show it belongs to a different animal group.
It breathes air with lungs and feeds its young milk, so it is a mammal.
An animal eats berries in the morning and insects in the afternoon. Why is it an omnivore?
It eats both plant food and animal food.
A dead log is covered with fungi. How do the fungi help the forest?
They break down the dead wood and return nutrients to the environment.
Frogs eat grasshoppers. If most of the grasshoppers disappear, what might happen to the frogs and the grass? Explain both changes.
Frogs may have less food and decrease in number. Grass may increase because fewer grasshoppers are eating it.
In a grassland, the number of rabbits drops sharply. How might this affect the foxes that hunt them? Explain why.
Foxes may have less food, so their numbers might decrease or they may need to find other prey.
You discover an animal with a backbone, dry scaly skin and lungs. It lays eggs on land. Which animal group would you place it in? Explain using two clues.
Reptiles. The dry, scaly skin and eggs laid on land are clues.
Mia sees a bird eating a worm and decides that it must be a carnivore. Why might Mia be wrong? What else would she need to find out?
The bird might also eat seeds, fruit or other plant food. Mia needs to find out what else it eats before deciding how to classify its diet.
Look at this food chain: grass → grasshopper → frog → snake. Jack says the snake is the secondary consumer because it eats an animal. Is Jack correct? Explain your answer.
No. The grasshopper is the primary consumer, the frog is the secondary consumer, and the snake is the tertiary consumer. The snake eats the frog, which is already a consumer.
A farmer removes most of the grass from a field. Explain how this could affect grasshoppers, frogs and snakes in this food chain: grass → grasshopper → frog → snake.
Grasshoppers may decrease because they have less food. Frogs may then decrease because there are fewer grasshoppers, and snakes may decrease because there are fewer frogs.
In a grassland, the number of rabbits drops sharply. How might this affect the foxes that hunt them? Explain why.
Rabbits may increase because fewer are hunted. More rabbits may eat more grass, causing the amount of grass to decrease. Other factors can also affect both populations.