1. By Rachel Lee Period 6 Code 9
Owl Pellets
By Rachel Lee
Period 6
Code 9

2. Introduction

3. My Comparative Question and Hypothesis
My hypothesis: If the diet of a Barn, Saw-whet, and Screech owl were to be researched, then the Barn owl will eat the most variety of prey animals because it is the largest among the three owls.
My Comparative Question: Which owl species eats the most variety of prey animals, the Barn, Saw-whet, or Screech owl?

4. Procedure / Methods
First we received an owl pellet. Then we recorded the length, width, height and mass of our pellet. We all started breaking the pellet into small pieces and started to dissect. Later, I sorted my bones to the ones that look alike and created the skeleton of my prey animal. After this, we collected our data and created a comparative question with our confirmed answer. Finally, from all that information, we created a PowerPoint that I am showing you right now.

5. My Prey Skeleton
This is my prey skeleton that is (was) a Pocket Gopher.

6. A Barn Owl’s Prey (few of many)
A Mouse
A Shrew
A Pocket Gopher
A Vole

7. Non-prey items found (if any)
My Data
Table 1: Summary of Individual Owl Pellet Contents
Prey animal found
Number of each
Non-prey items found (if any)
 Bird 1
None
 Pocket Gopher 2
Table 2: Types of Prey Animals found in Owl Pellets Period 6 Results:
Animal
Vole
Pocket Gopher
Mouse
Shrew
Rat
Bird
Mole
Total
# found 49 10 2 1 63
Percent
78%
16% 3% 2% 0%
100%

8. My Data (Cont’d)
Table 3: Number of Prey Animals per Pellet Period 6 Results:
Table 4: Types of Prey Animals found in Owl Pellets Entire Grade Results:
Animal
Vole
Pocket Gopher
Mouse
Shrew
Rat
Bird
Molde
Total
# found
260 27 37 4 3
331
Percent
79% 8%
11% 1% 0%
100%

9. My Data(Cont’d)
Table 5: Number of Prey Animals per Pellet - Entire Grade Results:
Table 6: Entire Class Statistics
Average number of prey animals per pellet (mean)
Type of prey animal contained by most pellets (mode for Table 4)
Number of prey animals contained by most pellets (mode for Table 5)
Lowest to highest number of prey animals in one pellet (range) 3
Vole
0 - 8

10. Graphs

11. My Comparative Question Data (Data from http://www.allaboutbirds.org)
Type of Owl
Variety of Prey Animals
Barn Owls
(Tyto Alba) 10
Saw-whet
(Aegolius acadicus) 34
Screech
(Megascops asio) 23

12. Barn Owl Food Web

13. Discussion

14. Conclusion

15. Thank You for Watching