Owl Pellet Dissection

Students studied the feeding habits of owls and other birds of prey. Owls do not have teeth, they swallow their meals whole. The undigested bones and fur are packed together into a pellet and then regurgitated. Students dissected sanitized pellets to examine the bones, fur and feathers. Using handouts and bone charts, they categorized the bones, and identified the types of prey eaten by the owls hawks, etc.