Week 10 · Chapter 8 Egypt Special Part 1: 8-1 Desert and Nile Food Chains; Let’s Expand; Column: It Always Starts with “Plants” · 3 lessons
2
Who rules the desert food chain?
Science P6: Term 1, Chapter 8, pp. 68–73
GoalTrace a desert food chain and tell where scavengers fit.
New words
jerboa · a small desert rodent with long back legsfennec fox · a small desert fox with large earsscavenger · an animal that eats dead animals
Explanation
Even the desert has food chains. Desert shrubs and grasses and their seeds are the producers. Grasshoppers eat the leaves, and jerboas eat seeds. A fennec fox eats insects such as grasshoppers, small animals such as jerboas and some plants, so it is not only a carnivore. The desert horned viper eats small animals like the jerboa. Large birds such as the Egyptian vulture are scavengers: they mostly feed on dead animals. A scavenger is a special kind of consumer that cleans up. Desert animals are adapted to heat and dry air: the fennec’s big ears give off heat, and the jerboa can live on the water in its food.
desert plants and seeds→grasshopper or jerboa→desert horned viper→(ends with a larger carnivore)
Worked examples
seeds→jerboa→fennec fox
In this desert chain, the producer is a plant, the jerboa eats its seeds, and the fennec fox eats the jerboa.
Animal
What it eats
grasshopper
plants
fennec fox
insects, small animals, some plants
Egyptian vulture
dead animals (scavenger)
Salma notices that a vulture is not at the end of a hunting chain. It eats animals that have already died, so it is a scavenger.
The desert after rain: plants grow quickly, so there is more food for insects, and more for the animals that eat them. A food chain depends on the weather too.
Class activity
Desert web game. With a partner, make cards for six desert living things. Link them with string. Remove one card, such as the plants, and say what happens to the others. Do not draw real animals; write names in boxes.
Practice
1
What do the producers in the desert chain make?
Food, using sunlight.
2
Is the fennec fox only a carnivore?
No. It eats insects, small animals and also some plants.
