More than 1,000 species of animals live in ponds – although you are unlikely to find all of them in any single pond. Almost every group of living creature is represented, except starfish which live only in the sea. In a large pond you may find mammals such as water voles and water shrews – and birds like ducks, herons and kingfishers.
Even the smallest pond will have a population of amphibians (frogs, toads and newts), small fish e.g. sticklebacks, and a huge variety of invertebrates (minibeasts). Some of these are herbivores such as water fleas and snails, whereas others are aggressive carnivores, hunting down their prey, the unfortunate herbivores! One of the largest invertebrate predators in a pond is the great diving beetle – no tadpole is safe when one of these hunters is around! Find out about another pond dwelling creature on our factsheet Dragonflies.
Many different food chains are to be found in a pond because each animal eats different things.
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