Finding food

Rabbits eat thousands of blades of grass every day

No animal can live without food. Food contains the building blocks of life, including proteins for growth, minerals for health and starch for energy. Without food, an animal cannot grow and has no energy to move. In short, without food, an animal will die.

Take aways

Animals can’t make their own food like plants do. So they have to eat other organisms instead. Plants have already done the hard work. The food they have made is now ready for animals to take away. Animals that eat plants are called primary consumers, because they are the first (primary) consumers in the food chain.

Plant eaters

Many animals feed only on plants. Some insects, such as caterpillars, eat leaves. Others, such as aphids, suck plant juice, called sap. Small mammals, such as mice or squirrels, nibble nuts and berries. Larger ones, such as rabbits and deer, may graze on grass. 

Veggie birds

Blackbirds enjoy eating berries, like these on a Pyracanthus (fire thorn) bush

Many birds eat plants. Some, such as finches or pigeons, eat mostly seeds or grain. Others, such as blackbirds, enjoy fruit and berries. A few, such as jays, can tackle hard nuts like acorns. Few birds eat leaves. They prefer the more nutritious parts of plants, such as seeds and fruit, which give them extra energy for flying.

Food conversion

Food from a plant does not come in a form that suits an animal’s needs. So the animal’s body breaks the food down into simpler substances - such as starch into sugars and proteins into amino acids. This is what happens in digestion; you’re probably doing it right now! The animal can then use these substances to keep active and alive and to build materials that help its own body to grow.