Food Chain Lane

In this blog post I will be talking about the African food chain.

Ok, I'll start out around the very bottom of the African food chain: the grain of grass. Most herbivores in the Savannah eat grass. And they also like to eat Acacia trees. The Acacia tree is the logo for the show "Nature," so these Acacia trees are pretty much famous.

Well what's higher on the food chain are the herbivores like harvester termites and gazelle. Here are some facts about those 2 creatures. The Thompson's gazelle can run up to 50 miles per hour. And here are 2 facts about the harvester termite. The harvester termite isn't like the one that builds ginormous towers. They're a bit like ants, they live in holes. And here's another fact about those harvester termites: all the harvester termites in one tower could eat more grass than all the other herbivores. Because hey, it's like tiny mighty!


Now what eats harvester termites and what eats Thompson's gazelle? Well bat eared foxes would probably like to eat the termites. And if a gazelle is wounded it would be vulnerable to the python. Here are some facts about these 2 predators. The bat eared fox can hear termites through ground. And pythons are constrictor snakes - that means they have a very tight squeeze. That's their way of killing their prey: squeezing them to death. But believe it or not, we're not at the higest part of the food chain.

We need to go to the top predators. There's only one top predator in Africa: the lion. The lion fact is they may not be able to sprint very well but they are good at tackling. So what did you learn from this blog post? Well, you learned that a herbivore eating grass is no worse than a lion eating zebra.

Acacia Tree

(Photo from parsha.blogspot.com)

 African Grass

(Photo from anthonymattox.com)

Gazelle

(Photo from awf.org)
Termites

(photo from remotecamera-sa.blogspot.com)
Python

(photo from arkive.org)
Bat Eared Fox

(photo from arkinspace.com)

Lion

(photo from razorianfly.com)

 

African elephant

The African elephant is a really strong animal. They've got thousands of muscles in their trunk - who knows how many are in their legs or other parts? And here's why they are so quiet when they step: they have pads on their feet. And here's why they have such big ears: well when an elephant is in trouble, they can make some big big sound in the ground. Only the elephants can hear because they're so low. And another reason would be how hot it is in the African savannah. They flap them to make their own little air conditioner. This is the same mechanism that the plates of the stegosaurus would probably use. And here's what they can do with their trunk: they can greet each other by shaking their trunks, like handshakes. And the most amazing thing: they can chase away lions with it. And hug their juvenile.

(photo from elephant-pictures.info)

Cheetah

The cheetah is pretty much famous for its speed of 70 mph. But there are some other really awesome things about the cheetah. And most people don't know this but the cheetah squeaks to its babies like a bird would! Each squeak is a different command. And did I mention the cheetah can see extremely far away? Miles away! But one of the downsides about the cheetah is that when it goes at its full speed of 70mph, it can only sprint, because "when a cheetah's run, it's done." There's something about the cheetah, well at least the cubs: the cheetah cubs sorta have a little mimicry - which means they look like a really scary creature. But they really aren't the creature. Now only the cubs have this power. It looks like the African honey badger (a really mean creature)! Well, at least when the cubs' head is down, like when he's sleeping. I'll talk about the African honey badger in another post later.

(photo from dailyinterestingfacts.com)

Coelacanth

The coelacanth is a very old creature. It came before the dinosaurs in a period called the Devonian. It went from that age all the way to this age. A long time ago people used to think they all died out. But some people found a coelacanth off the coast of South Africa, which proved that they still roamed the waters off of Africa.

(photo from bbc.co.uk)