Owl Pellet Report

By Caitlyn Nguyen
Owls pellets a formed by the same things. Owl pellets are big clumps of fur and bones that is left over from what they eat. For example they eat mice, rats, and many other rodents. Pellets are formed by the fur hair and bones that is left from the animal it ate. The fur and bones are held in the gizzard which is above the stomach. The gizzard traps the fur and bones from reaching the stomach so it can be digested. That is how owl pellets are the formed by the same things. Owl pellets are connected to the food chain in a special way. Owls pellets are regurgitated on the ground which then decomposes and the nutrients from the pellet provide food for the producers. Then the producers provide food for many other rodents to eat. If the rodents get eaten by an owl then it does the prophase all over again. That is how the pellets are related to the food chain. There are a lot of bones from the pellet I got. In my pellet I found one rodent skull and a lot of other bones. One of the bones I fond was the rodents paw which is also called metacarpals. Another was the jaws of the rodent also called the mandible. It was hard to find the scapula also known as the shoulder blade because it was hard to figure out which one was the right part. The hardest part was putting together the back bone also known as the vertebra. I think the animal I found in my pellet was a rat or a mouse because it had the skull was shaped like a rats head and the yellow-orange teeth were a huge give away! I can not wait tell the glue dries to see the skeleton I put together!