Owl Pellet Lab

Question: What is an owl pellet and what does it contain?

Hypothesis: If an owl pellet is owl regurgitation then it will contain pieces of its diet.

Prior Knowlege: I knew that owl pellets were the regurgitation of an owl and not its feces like I originally thought. I remembered doing this same experiment in 6th grade. I remembered as well that you find bones and fur inside of the pellet.

Procedure: First we measured the length and width of the owl pellets. My owl pellet was 5 cm long and 3.5 cm wide. Then we checked to see if we could see any signs of fur or feathers. After that we took a dissecting needle and broke apart the pellet. We then used our hands and the needle to look at the different bones and take them out of the pellet. We placed all the bones on the paper towel. After we were done dissecting the pellets we put our data into a table on the back of our lab sheet and cleaned up.

Materials: Owl pellet,  dissecting needle, paper, and bone chart.

Data: We found that 2 rodent skulls, 4 mole/rodent jaws, 4 mole/rodent scapulas, 3 rodent forelimbs, 2 mole hindlimbs, 4 mole/rodent pelvic bones, around 30 mole/rodent ribs, and about 15 mole/rodent vertabrae.

Results: We determined that the owl that had regurgitated our pellet had eaten a mole and rodent before it regurgitated the pellet.

Analysis:
-Discussion/Interpretation: We now know that the digestive system of an owl does not digest bones and fur. From our experiment we also know that owl pellets are like an ecosystem of their own because they provide a habitat for moths, carpet beetles, fungi, and caterpillars.
-Errors/Uncertainities: The only thing that is uncertain about this experiment is the number of bones because some of the bones could have been broken in the owl pellet so we don't know the exact number of bones.
-Next Time: I don't think there is anything we would do differently next time.

Conclusion: Owl pellets are the regurgitation of owls. They contain bones, fur, and feathers. The bones are mostly of moles, rodents, shrews, or birds. Owl pellets are also habitats for many small organisms.