Researching Regurgitation By Colin Hascup Period 1 (13)
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- Researching Regurgitation By Colin Hascup Period 1 (13)
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- Introduction
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- We dissected owl pellets to find out what the barn owls ate. My
comparative question was Where do owls eat the most prey? My
hypothesis was that owls in the northeast would have the most
skulls. My hypothesis was disproven. The barn owls in the northeast
had an average of 3.45 skulls in each pellet. The barn owls in the
northwest had an average of 2.23 skulls in each pellet. The barn
owls in the southeast had an average of 2.53 skulls in each pellet.
The barn owls in the southwest had an average of 3.65 skulls in
each pellet. I found these numbers interesting. The southwest had
the most skulls. I think this is because the population of the prey
animals is higher in the southwest than any other region of the
United States. I had predicted that the pellet from owls in the
northeast would have the most skulls. This is because I had 4
skulls in my pellet and some people in my class had up to 8 skulls.
But I didnt account for the other pellets in my class. In science,
we need to use multiple samples. Comparative Question
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- First we picked our owl pellets, then we weighed and measured
each pellet. We labeled the length, width and height of each
pellet. Next we dissected our pellets. We looked for bones using a
toothpick and tweezers to pry apart the thick fur. We found as many
bones as we could. When we were done dissecting, we identified the
bones and put them in specific categories according to body part.
Then we counted up the parts to determine how many full animals
were in the pellet. We recorded how many animals we had and glued
one of the sets of animal bones to a bone chart and labeled it.
Procedure
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- Bone Chart
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- Owl Questions
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- Graph of the types of prey animals found in pellets.
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- Graph of the number of prey animals found in pellets.
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- Graph of the average number of skulls in barn owl pellets.
Source: California Owl Pellet App
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- Graph of the number of bones found in my pellet.
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- Size of owl pellet chart
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- Charts of prey animals found in pellet Vole Mouse 3 1
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- Barn owls have adapted to become amazing birds of prey. The
dissection of owl pellets was used to figure out what owls eat. A
complete skeleton of a vole was constructed with the bones from the
owl pellet. In addition, extra research was conducted to evaluate
Where do owls eat the most prey in the United States? For this
research the California Owl Pellet App was used. The hypothesis
that owls in the northeast region of the United States would have
the most skulls was refuted. Owl pellets had the most skulls in the
southwest, possibly because there are more prey animals in the
southwest. However, only one source was used to obtain the average
numbers of skulls in the pellets. These numbers could have had a
possible source of error. There is human error from counting wrong
or mis-identifying the skulls. Another possible source of error is
that pellets from other owl species could have been included. A way
to improve this lab would be to use multiple sources for finding
the data. Owl pellets are a very useful scientific tool to help
scientists determine what owls eat. In addition, apps like the
California Owl Pellet App have pros and cons. They are useful
because many people can report data. This is good because it gets a
lot of samples, but bad because it might introduce a lot of error.
Conclusion
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- Fun Facts!!! 1. Barn owls screech, they do not hoot. 2. The
barn owls heart-shaped face collects sound in the same way as human
ears. 3. Its hearing is the best of any creature tested. 4. Owl
chicks in the same nest will feed each other. 5. In order to live
and breed, a pair of barn owls needs to eat around 5,000 prey items
a year. 6. The barn owl is found on every continent except
Antarctica. 7. Nests are usually in barns or holes in trees, but
sometimes they build their nests in quarries