Owls eat a variety of small mammals - they swallow them whole - then 6-7 hours later they regurgitate the indigestible parts in the form of a pellet which they drop on the ground: so dissecting these pellets can give interesting information about their diet and about the kind of animals that are found in the owls habitat.
Luke thought they were quite smelly so wore suitable nose wear!
It took quite a while to take the pellet apart - all the elements are tightly packed together. We all worked on our own pellets.
Here is the end result from two of them:
There was loads of fur and each had at least one skull and jaw bone and a number of longer limb bones.
We got the microscope out to have a look at the bones in more detail.
We were given a key to help us identify the bones. The placement of the teeth is the first clue to see if the jaw belongs to a rodent or an insectivore.
Our skull had a gap between the incisors and cheek teeth so we followed the key to no 9 and had to look under the microscope to see the zig-zag chewing surfaces which identified our bone as belonging to voles.
Here are the boys journal pages
I am always amazed at how much you find in these pellets!
ReplyDeleteI know they are so tightly packed - the owls must get all the goodness they possibly need from them - there's not much of the animal left!
ReplyDeleteI admire your dedication to providing an educational experience! This one might be too far out of my comfort level! Maybe our local wildlife center will host an activity like this. I don't mind dissection but a predigested bundle of fur and bones is too much for me. I loved reading about how you identified the bones and seeing the journal entries though.
ReplyDeleteThanks - it definitely is worth doing if you can get over the yuk factor!
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