Introduction
We all need food to eat and get the nutrients and energy from it. How do you get your food? You go to a grocery store and vegetable markets to buy your food. Some have vegetable gardens in their homes. Farmers not only plant crops but also raise animals for milk, eggs etc. The pets in your home depend on you for their food.
But what about the animals that are outside on their own. How do they find the food they need?
Feeding Habit of Animals
Animals in the wild hunt for food in the habitat they live in.
Different animals need different kinds of food. Some animals are herbivores and they eat only plants and plant products. Some animals are carnivores; they kill and eat other animals. Some animals eat both plants and animals and they are called omnivores. Some animals are insectivores; they consume only insects.
Different types of eating habits, result in different ways of finding food. Unlike humans who grow the food they want, animals have to forage for their food. Forage means searching far and wide for food. Animals can forage for food either alone or in a group.
Some animals like a leopard or a squirrel forage for food on their own, they are solitary foragers. Some animals always look for food in a group like the deer or ants and they are called as group foragers.
If you look at the food chain and the food web of a particular habitat, we can see how each animal finds its food.
Primary producers
The ultimate source of all food is the plants. Plants are the primary producers of any food chain.
Primary consumers
Herbivores consume only plants and their products and they are called the primary consumers. These animals consume the stems of plants, the flowers, the seeds or roots. Some herbivores forage for food in very large groups. So they can do damage to plant growth in an area.
Secondary consumers
Herbivores are the food of predators, who are the secondary consumers in the food chain. These animals feed by hunting and killing their prey. They are called carnivores. Carnivores hunt other animals for their food. Small predators are eaten by large predators.
