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OWLS
OWL PELLETS
Mrs. Gray sent home a letter to our parents explaining about our owl project.  She explained in the the letter that most birds cannot chew their food and owls are no exception. Owls usually swallow their prey whole. However, owls differ from other species of birds because they do not have a crop, the baglike organ used to store food after it has been swallowed so that it can be digested later. In owls, food passes directly from the mouth to the gizzard. The gizzard uses digestive fluids and bits of sand and gravel to grind and dissolve all of the usable tissue from the prey. The types of tissue that can be dissolved by an owl's digestive system include muscle, fat, skin, and internal organs. These tissues are broken down into a variety of nutritional substances by the owl's gizzard and intestines. Indigestible material left in the gizzard such as teeth, skulls, claws, and feathers are too dangerous to pass through the rest of the owl's digestive tract. To safely excrete this material, the owl's gizzard compacts it into a tight pellet that the owl regurgitates. The regurgitated pellets are known as owl pellets.
   She purchased our  owl pellets. The pellets were sterilized.
 
This is a large owl pellet. It contained a vole.
animation dissection
This is an unique pellet. It was a huge pellet. It contained many bones and feathers.
dissection of pellet
In this pellet we found a bird, ladybug, and several rodents. 
dissection of pellet


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 Updated 06/20/10
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