Basic Owl Pellet Study
What owls eat can be determined by collecting owl pellets (or castings) that are fur balls of undigested material regurgitated from the stomachs of owls. In the first part of the activity, students dissect owl pellets and sort the various bones, teeth, beaks, claws, fur, and feathers found within them. The second part of the activity involves creating a food web based on the contents of the pellets and additional background information about common prey animals.
Details at a Glance
- 1-2 Days | 1-2 ~50 minute class periods
- 1 Activity
- Accommodates 1 class, with 15 groups of 4 students
- Consumables service 15 students
- Meets our criteria for supporting literacy
- Includes digital resources
- Requires a water source
Scientific Concepts
•What owls eat can be determined by collecting owl pellets.
•Relative populations of prey animals can be estimated by dissecting owl pellets.
•Food webs show relationships between predators and prey.
Key Vocabulary: food web, owl pellet, predator, prey
Guides & Student Sheets
Our kits and modules provide you with everything you need so you can open, review, and teach the material confidently the next day.
- Full downloadable Teacher Guide with background information, detailed instruction, example data and answers
- Downloadable Student Sheets with age appropriate background information, full procedure(s), and analysis questions
- All materials necessary to carry out the investigation
- Safety Data Sheets
Kit Components
- 1 Teacher’s Guide
- 30 Student Worksheets and Guides
- 15 Owl pellets - sterilized, and individually wrapped
- 15 Probes
- Not included and needed for instruction: 1 pair of gloves per person, access to hand lenses or binocular microscopes.
Need to order refills for this Kit?
Order RefillsRelated Products
-
Kit #37-IIndividual Owl Pellet KitDesigned specifically for one student, this kit contains materials for determining the contents of owl pellets. Instructions include descriptions and illustrations of prey animals, including their skulls. A student uses the basic skeletal diagram to determine where bones found in the pellets are located in the actual structure of a prey mammal. The student...
$31.90 View Details -
Kit #51Dichotomous Keys
This activity uses fictitious organisms, called “quozes” to introduce students to the observation of traits and the use of keys to differentiate and identify specimens. Students use two formats of dichotomous keys frequently encountered in the sciences and evaluate which key is easiest to read or follow. After using the keys to...
$64.85 View Details -
Kit #50Classification
In this Lab-Aids® kit students sort and classify figures of various shapes and colors to gain a sense of order and an understanding that things (organisms, rocks, materials, etc) can be arranged into groups based on physical characteristics, or traits. Students discover for themselves that there are various kinds of characteristics and that...
$54.60 View Details -
Kit #547SModeling the Effects of an Introduced Species
Students work in groups to use a set of cards to develop a model of a food web for one of four ecosystems. Students are then given an additional card representing an introduced species. They then consider the effects this new organism will have on the ecosystem and revise their models to explain how...
$62.75 View Details -
Kit #555SOrganisms as Indicators of Ecosystem Health
Students examine simulated samples of aquatic macroinvertebrates from the same river collected at three different points in time. They calculate the relative proportion of macroinvertebrates that are intolerant to pollution compared with the total catch. These proportions are an indicator of water quality. They identify patterns in the data and construct arguments for possible...
$82.75 View Details -
Kit #556Ecological Succession
This kit provides an active learning alternative to passive methods of studying ecological succession. As succession is a slow process occurring in nature, it is difficult to study in the classroom. With this activity, students experience the stages of succession as they progress from bare rock to the climax community. Within each successional stage,...
$138.95 View Details
