More Owl Pellet Data

The Young Scholars Program at Cambridge Elementary School (NY) has given me a chance to collect more data on owl prey preference. Here it is:

5 pellets dissected included the remains of:

11 mice, 1 shrew, 0 moles, 0 birds

That is an average of 2.4 animals eaten for each pellet produced.

Look at these other postings of owl pellet study for more data - Bushkill Elementary Owl Ecologists and Owl Pellets and Predator Prey Relationships

Here we are having a discussion on the three common owls of the Cambridge, NY area - the eastern screech-owl, the great-horned owl and the barred owl. The barn owl has been included in the discussion even though it is not usually found in NewYork state because the pellets that we dissect come from barn owls.








Students are busy dissecting owl pellets looking for the bones of the owl's prey. The owl eat the prey whole. Very quickly in the digestion process the bones, fur and feather (in the event that the owl has eaten a bird) are packed into a ball and regurgitated.










Here is some of the hands-on investigation that reveals what the owl ate to produce a pellet.














I have some specimens of prey items that I will photograph and post soon.