Owl Pellet Data Sheet

Pre-Dissection Questions:

1. List three physical adaptations that make owls very good hunters.

2. What is an owl pellet?

3. Describe how the owl eats and digests its food.

4. What are two important safety precautions to take during the owl pellet dissection? i)

Dissection Data:

5. Number of skulls (or pairs of jaw bones) found in your owl pellet. ______

6. Type(s) of skulls found in owl pellet. ______

7. The class record: Total # of prey animals found: ______Total # of pellets examined: ______Average # of prey animals per pellet: ______

8. If a barn owl produces one pellet each day, estimate how much food the owl would eat in a year.

Follow-up Questions:

9. The skeletons in these owl pellets provide information about the small animal populations found in owl habitats in Ontario. How accurately do you think the information gained from pellet analysis reflects the kind and abundance of ALL the small animal populations in the owl’s habitat?

10. On a separate piece of paper, make a food web using the list of organisms below, in which the barn owl is positioned at the highest trophic level. Make your diagrams as comprehensive as possible. Use dotted lines to indicate uncertain relationships. Owl Grass Shrew Leaves Mouse Rat Deer Mouse Centipede Weasel Caterpillar Vole Song Bird