Owl pellets offer an excellent opportunity for students at all grade levels to engage in hands-on, inquiry-based learning. An owl pellet is the end product of the owl’s digestive process. It is expelled from the owl’s mouth much as a cat coughs up a hair ball. An owl pellet contains the undigested parts of prey such as bones, teeth, hair, feathers, scales, and insect skeletons. Dissecting owl pellets is a great way to begin class discussions about feeding habits, availability of prey in certain areas, ecosystems, and food webs.
Want to give owl pellets a try? Here are some suggestions for an owl pellet inquiry sure to engage your students.
- Ask students what they think an owl pellet is, how it might be formed, and where it comes from.
- Have students make observations about the color, size, and texture of their owl pellets. Compare owl pellets among the class and note similarities and differences.
- Ask students to carefully separate the bones from fur as they dissect their pellets and to use a bone chart to identify the prey from which the bones came.
- Have students use the bone chart as a resource to build an articulated skeleton from the contents of their pellets.
- Ask students to observe patterns or trends in rodent skulls or jaws.
- Have students make careful observations about other material in the pellets such as fur, feathers, straw, and soil.
- Consider using our Owl Pellet Regional Variation Kit to study the variations in Barn Owl pellets from 4 regions of the United States.
- Expand your owl pellet studies to include comparative anatomy with our NEW Comparative Skeletal Anatomy Kit. It includes owl pellets for dissection plus cleared and stained frog, snake, and rat specimens for study.
To learn more about our preserved materials and innovative owl pellet study kits and teaching resources, visit
www.carolina.com/preserved. While you are there, take a few minutes to explore our secure online shopping, product information, classroom resources and activities, and teaching tips.
