Owl Pellets Fun To Play By: Daniel Yu #23 Period 8

Introduction The purpose: we wanted to know what was in a owl pellet. The barn owl can fly silently, the barn owl has a great hearing sight, not smart, and bad eye sight. What is an owl pellet and how are they formed?: Owls, like many other birds, eat their food whole. Since birds do not have teeth, they can't chew their food. Therefore, they use their strong and sharp beaks to rip their prey apart and then swallow large chunks whole. The owl slowly digests its meal by separating the softer materials (such as meat) from the harder material (such as bones). It then regurgitates the harder material along with indigestible items such as feathers and fur in the form of a pellet. To see a clip of how an owl pellet gets formed click the oval

Procedures we followed We broke the pellet into two pieces We took out the bones and collected them We filled out the data tables We glued the bones together.

Pictures of my prey skeleton Vole

Vole

Data Table

Data Table 3 30 25 20 15 10 5 Vole Mouse Shrew Rat Bird Mole above Vole Pocket Gopher Mouse Shrew Rat Bird Mole

Discussion/Conclusion