More Owl Pellet Analysis

Last week I visited the Lynnwood Elementary School and worked with 4th grades doing Owl Ecology and Owl Pellet Dissection. Here are the results:

Mrs. Janssen’s class – 24 rodents, 1 shrew, 0 moles, 0 birds in 11 pellets
Mr. Miller’s class – 14 rodents, 1 shrew, 0 moles, 1 bird in 6 pellets
Ms. Shields’ class – 26 rodents, 0 shrews, 0 moles, 0 birds in 11 pellets
Mrs. Lodge’s class – 23 rodents, 0 shrews, 0 moles, 1 bird in 11 pellets

For a total of 87 rodents, 2 shrews, 0 moles, 2 birds in 39 pellets.

Definitely rodents are the most eaten food. In my hypothesis that I discuss with the students I state that shrews are the second most eaten food. Our analysis seems to indicate that shrews and birds are tied for second.

If we look at more owl pellets (see Previous Posts - More Owl Pellet Data and Owl Pellets and Predator Prey Relationships) we see that, indeed, shrews are the second favorite, with moles and birds a close tie for third favorite.

If we look at the number of animals eaten per pellet we find 91 animals eaten in 39 pellets for an average of 2.3, very close to the 2.5 that I predict. This supports the thought that a barn owl eats between 2 or 3 animals before it gets full and proceeds to digest their food producing a pellet.