Question

Garden plants are eaten by snails, which are eaten by birds, which are eaten by the household cat. What happens to the other members of the food chain if the cat is removed? a. The number of plants, snails, and birds increase. b. The number of plants and snails increase and the number of birds decreases c. The number of plants increases and the number of snails and birds decrease. d. The number of plants and birds increase and the number of snails decreases.

Answer 1

The correct answer is (d) The number of plants and birds increases and the number of snail decreases.

Green plants are eaten by snails, snails by birds, and birds by household cat. If cat is removed from the cycle then the number of birds will increase which will decrease the number of snail in the environment.  As there are large number of birds there will be a great demand of snails as a food for birds. Then there will be a decrease in the number of snails because of over eating of snails. There will be an increase in the number of garden plants because very less number of snails are left that will eat garden plants.

Answer 2

The correct answer is d. The number of plants and birds increase and the number of snails decreases.

The plants are eaten by the snails, the snails by the birds and birds by the cats. If the cats are removed from this food chain then there will be more number of birds surviving hence the number of birds increase. The birds will eat more snails so the number of snails will decrease. When the number of snails decreases, they will less number of plants therefore the number of plants increases. Every tropic level in the food chain has its own different impact on the number of species of the food chain.