One of the most interesting things about owls is how they digest their food. First, they swallow their prey whole. Their stomachs digest everything except the fur and the bones of the animal they swallowed. After digestion, their stomach compresses the bones and fur into a pellet and the owl throws up this dry fur ball of a pellet.
You see where this is going, don't ya? Gulp.
There are companies out there that make a living off of collecting these owl pellets and sterilizing them and selling them to people for science lessons.
I know.
So we had to do it. We just had to. It's like a treasure hunt. If you happen to consider rodent skeletons to be treasure. And it was sterilized, after all. But don't think for a second that didn't stop me from boiling my children's hands in water and then soaking them in alcohol when we were done.
You just break apart the pellet...
And start pulling away fur...see, it's not so scary...
Look! a tibia!
And a tiny mouse skull!
You can download all kinds of sheets to use with this activity, like this bone identification sheet.
Come on, you know you want to do it. You can order them at http://www.pelletsinc.com/
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7 comments:
you are so good at this! you teach me something new everytime=)
When we would go on hikes with my mom we would get so excited to find an owl pellet. They are an intriguing thing. My mom found one right by our house once and I am pretty certain it sits in her classroom today.
Girl, that's nasty! It was one thing that you told me about it, but it's another thing entirely to show the photos! (And this coming from someone who used to eat Subway roast beef sandwiches before going to anatomy cadaver lab...) Seriously, though... that is pretty interesting stuff!
Oh, you're so good! :)
pellets.inc.....haha!!
Please say you washed the dining room table afterwards. Sounds disgusting, but I'm sure it was fun.
I feel inspired to go on a hike in the woods, and instead of collecting beautiful fall leaves - owl pellets, of course! Verrrrrrry interesting!
Hands down coolest mom award...how did you find out about this? We just finished Owl Moon, and it was a bit hard to get them interested...maybe we will have to revisit it, maybe, how do they sterilize the inside? Great tip!
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