Name ______

Owl Pellet Dissection

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 form 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 metamorphose near the surface of a pellet in cocoons made of fur.

I. Prelab:

1. How is an owl pellet an ecosystem in itself? ______

2. Looking at the food web, what bones or remains might you find in your owl pellet today?

______

3. Even though the owl does not feed on insects, what would explain finding remains of an insect in your owl pellet? ______

4. Where does all the energy from the food web above ultimately come from? ______

5. If the owl has no natural predators, what would limit it’s population? (What keeps the owls from being overpopulated?______.

6. Predict what would happen if the owl was removed from this food web? ______

II. Carefully use a toothpick or a dissecting probe to break apart the owl pellet and observe what is within. Use a toothpick to expose all bones for identification. Use the bone sorting chart to help you identify your bones and complete the chart.

Bones Found

Bone / Number
Skull
Jaw
Scapula
Forelimb
Hind limb
Pelvic Bone
Rib
Vertebrae

1. Judging by the remains you found in your pellet, list the organisms that live in the owl community?

______

2. Other types of birds form pellets. What would you expect to find in the pellet of a seagull?

______

3.. 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 owls? Why or why not?______

4. Explain the importance of having a top predator like an owl in an ecosystem. What would happen if this top predator were removed from the ecosystem? ______

5. Why are there usually only 4 trophic levels found in an energy pyramid? Why not more? ______.

5. Using the food web from the front, place 4

organisms in this energy pyramid correctly.

Just write the names of the organisms in the appropriate levels

Once you have completed these questions, raise your hand to see if you are clear to begin cleaning up. I will take up your lab sheet when I see that you have cleaned your area and you have completed the questions.