Owl Pellets Max Romero & Ta'Liyah Johnson

Name: Max Romero & Ta’Liyah Date:__8-31-23____
Investigation - How Can Owl Pellets Be Used to Determine Diet?

Owl pellets are masses of bone, teeth, hair, feathers and exoskeletons of various
animals preyed upon by raptors, or birds of prey. Pellets are produced and
regurgitated not only by owls, but by hawks, eagles and other raptors that
swallow their prey whole or in small pieces. Owls feed early in the evening and
regurgitate a single pellet approximately 20 hours after eating. Unlike snakes, the
protein enzymes and strong acids which occur in the digestive tract of raptors do
not digest the entire meal. The relatively weak stomach muscles of the bird from
the undigested fur, bones, feather etc. into wet slimy pellets. In this process even
the most fragile bones are usually preserved unbroken.
The owl pellets that you will be examining in this lab have been collected and
fumigated from common barn owls. Owl pellets themselves are ecosystems,
providing food and shelter for communities which may include clothes moths,
carpet beetles and fungi. Clothes moth larvae are frequently abundant in
pellets, feeding on fur and feathers. The black spheres about the size of
periods (.) that are found in the pellets are the droppings of the caterpillars.
The larvae go through metamorphosis near the surface of a pellet in cocoons
made of fur.
Materials
Owl pellets
Dissecting Needle/toothpicks
Bone Chart
Procedure
1. Measure the length and width of your owl pellets.
Length of your owl pellet_5______

Width of your owl pellet___2____
Mass of your owl pellet__6.3_____
2. Carefully examine the exterior of the pellet. Do you see any signs of fur? __Yes___
Any signs of feathers? __Yes_____
3. Carefully use a toothpick to break apart the owl pellet and observe what is within. Use a
toothpick to expose all bones for identification. Use the bone diagram to help you identify your
bones and complete the chart.
4. Mount the bones you find on construction paper. Organize the bones into groups and label
them, use the attached chart to help you identify bones
www.biologycorner.com
Analysis
1. From the context of the reading, write a short definition or explanation for the following terms:
a) raptor- Birds that swoop down on their prey
b) regurgitate- Bring up again to the mouth (swallowed food)
c) larvae- The active immature form of a insect
d) metamorphosis- The process of transformation from an immature form to an adult form in two
or more distinct stages.
2. Owl pellets not only can give us information about the diet of the owl, owl pellets also provide a
habitat for other animals, in fact an owl pellet is a little ecosystem all on its own. What kind of animals
are found in the “owl pellet ecosystem” (Hint: read the background at the beginning)
The kind of animals that can be found in the owl pellet ecosystem are insects, birds, and
amphibians.
3. Other types of birds form pellets. What would you expect to find in the pellet of a seagull?
You would expect to find remains of marine animals such as mollusks, fish, and crustaceans.
4. Owls, hawks, and eagles are types of raptors, animals which have hooked beaks and sharp claws,
and are therefore adapted for seizing prey animals. Hawks and eagles differ from owls in that they eat
their prey animals by tearing them into small pieces, picking out the flesh and avoiding most of the fur
and bones. They also have strong stomachs which can digest most of the bone material which they
might eat. The relatively small amount of indigestible bone and fur that remain will be compacted by their
stomach muscles into a pellet similar to the owl's. Do you think an eagle pellet would be as useful for
dissecting as an owl’s? Why or why not?
No a eagle pellet would not be useful for dissecting an owl because we will find less bones
and it would be fewer whole items and it would be hard to identify what they ate. When we did
it with the owl it was much more skulls and bones then you would most likely find less in a
eagle pellet.
5. Construct a diagram of a food web (of at least 5 animals) with an owl at the uppermost trophic level.
Plant -> Grasshopper -> Bird -> Snake -> Owl

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Name: Max Romero & Ta’Liyah Date:8-31-23__

Investigation - How Can Owl Pellets Be Used to Determine Diet?

Length of your owl pellet_5______

a) raptor- Birds that swoop down on their prey

b) regurgitate- Bring up again to the mouth (swallowed food)

c) larvae- The active immature form of a insect

Plant -> Grasshopper -> Bird -> Snake -> Owl

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