Date: Fri 15-Nov-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: DOTTIE

Quick Words:

schools-owl-pellets

Full Text:

Sandy Hook Third-Graders Ogle Owl Pellets

B Y D OROTHY E VANS

When Sandy Hook student Bryan Nelson first laid eyes on the object of

Tuesday's science lab study, he couldn't contain his excitement.

A perfectly preserved and, as yet, undissected owl pellet rested in the middle

of a recycled styrofoam meat tray.

Nothing he'd seen in any picture could have prepared him.

The three-inch long pellet - which was the regurgitated remains of an owl's

dinner - looked sort of like a giant hair ball. It was mildly repulsive, quite

fascinating and very real.

"There's a skull! It's furry. I see bones and teeth!" Bryan said, as his lab

partner, Jeremy Mitchell, strained to get a closer look.

The rest of the children in Erin Quinlan's third grade science classroom might

have rushed over to check it out, except they were equally absorbed in

examining whatever wonders were contained in their own owl pellets, that

they'd just removed from protective tin foil wrappings.

They might have wanted nothing more than to cut open those tantalizing and

mysterious objects to see what was inside. But they were learning what the

scientific method is all about, that observation and data collecting are the

necessary first steps.

"I want you to measure your pellet and record the data on your sheets. What

color is it? What shape? What are the visible contents?" Mrs Quinlan asked the

children.

Dutifully, working in pairs, they set about making life-size scale drawings

and noting measurements with their metric rulers.

The pellets were smooth, brown and surprisingly neat in appearance - not as

disgusting as they'd first thought, the children said, as they carefully

handled them.

They had learned that adult owls, who are nocturnal birds of prey, swallow

their live victims whole, usually capturing small birds or mammals on the

wing. The indigestible remains of those meals, such as teeth and bones, hair,

feathers or fur, are rolled into ovoid balls or pellets, which the owls cast

up.

Sometimes the remains from several different feedings might be contained in

one pellet and studies have found that a typical bird coughs up two pellets

per day.

"Don't worry about handling them," Mrs Quinlan said. "They've been

sterilized."

This was the second year the class had dissected owl pellets as part of their

science program, Mrs Quinlan said, and she added that the children were

invariably enthusiastic about the project.

While pellets can be found in the wild at the base of trees where owls

regularly roost, or in a barn where they may have set up housekeeping, Mrs

Quinlan had obtained her samples from a biological supply company in North

Carolina.

In preparation for the lab, the children had spent several days learning about

owls - how they can see in the dark to hunt at night, why they don't see

colors, what their preferred habitat was and how they raise their young.

Now they were enjoying the reward of all that advance study - the chance to

examine for themselves a piece of direct evidence provided by the animal

itself - in this case, a barn owl.

When it came time to actually "tease open your pellets" with a pencil, the

children were totally absorbed.

They carefully separated the fur and bones into separate piles. Then they laid

out the tiny jawbones of shrews and voles in neat rows and matched them to

identifying photos in their lab packets.

By the time the project was completed over several days' time, Mrs Quinlan

explained, they would have classified and redrawn all the bones they'd found

in their pellets and compiled an accurate count of every rodent tooth, noting

whether it was an incisor or a molar.

What could they learn from those tiny remains?

Look at the teeth, Mrs Quinlan said. Was this an insect eater, such as a mole?

Or a seed eater, such as a bird?

If they were lucky, some of the students might even be able to reconstruct a

complete skeleton of a meadow mouse, or vole, a frequent object of owl

predation.

There might even be word problems to solve as a part of the owl study unit,

relating to what the children had learned about owls' feeding habits. Mrs

Quinlan posed one such problem in the children's lab packet:

Suppose there is a nestful of six young owlets to feed. When three weeks old,

they can swallow prey whole as an adult. Assuming they ate half as much up to

that point, and had to be fed for nine weeks until they could fly and hunt on

their own, how many organisms would it take to support that family? Don't

forget Mom and Dad.

As challenging as that problem might be for third-graders, Mrs Quinlan didn't

mind giving them something to reach for.

Even if they didn't come up with the correct answer, she told them, "It's easy

to see how the rodent population would be greatly reduced in the area, and why

the parents are anxious for the young ones to leave home!"