Owl Pellet background research questions-1 PDF

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Research a Barn Owl and answer the Pre-lab/ Background information for Owl Pellet lab: (you will include these in your lab report as your background information)

1. What is a Barn Owl? The barn owl is a medium-sized, pale-coloured owl with long wings and a short, squarish tail. There is considerable size variation across the subspecies, with a typical specimen measuring about 33 to 39 cm (13 to 15 in) in overall length, the length ranging from 29 to 44 cm (11 to 17 in). 2. What is the habitat of the barn owl? The Barn Owl occupies a wide range of habitats and altitudes, including deserts, grasslands, forests, agricultural fields and urban areas. This species is common in most habitats throughout the state. They are found around agricultural areas or basalt cliffs, as well as forest openings, wetlands, and other open spaces. 3. Briefly describe nesting behavior of barn owls. The female makes a simple nest of her own regurgitated pellets, shredded with her feet and arranged into a cup. Unlike most birds, owls may use their nest sites for roosting throughout the year. Nest sites are often reused from year to year, often by different owls. 4. What does the barn owl eat? Mostly rodents. Feeds heavily on voles; also takes various kinds of mice, small rats, shrews, young rabbits, other mammals. Eats very small numbers of birds, lizards, insects, rarely frogs or even fish. 5. How does the owl locate its prey? As with all owls, Barn Owls "echo-locate" prey -- changing the position of their head until they zero-in on the exact location of a sound (such as the squeak of a mouse or the rustle of their prey's feet) 6. How does the barn owl eat? Barn Owls swallow their prey as a whole instead of tearing it into pieces. They are unable to digest the fur and bones so they throw them out through their mouth in the form of pellets.

7. Describe the digestive system of the barn owl (You can include a picture) Barn Owls usually swallow their prey whole, and their food passes into their gizzard. The gizzard is an organ that uses digestive fluid and bits of sand and gravel to grind and dissolve digestible material. ... The gizzard compacts these leftovers into a tight pellet that the owl regurgitates.

8. What is a pellet? Compressed rodent fur and bones. A small, rounded, compressed mass of a substance. 9. What other living things, besides bone, might you find in an owl pellet? Teeth, fur, claws, skulls, and feathers...