Comparative Question Is a pocket gopher eaten more by the barn
olws daily or the spotted owl? In the results the Spotted owl did
eat more pocket gopher then the Barn owls.How the result was found
by adding all if the data of what the spotted owl ate and then
divide the total by how many the spotted owl ate of pocket gopher
and do the same with the barn owls.I predicted that the barn owl
would slighly eat more then the spotted owl but the spottedowl ate
a lot more then the barn owls.So the pprodiction was proven
wrong.
Slide 5
Procedure First of all when getting an owl pellet it is covered
in tin foil after words open the tin foil and thats the owl
pellet.Usually there are tools that are used to help with finding
bones in the pellet. The first tool used is a toothpick,and
tweezers.When using the tweezers and toothpicks it helps when
having hair on the bones that is stuck in the bones found. Then the
next step is to sort the bones into different catergories. One kind
of category is like ribs or skulls. Then after sorting the bones
identify the kind of prey then place or glue the bones on the prey
diagram.
Slide 6
Diagram of prey Pocket Gopher
Slide 7
Prey animal foundNumber of eachNon-prey items found (if any)
Pocket gopher 1None Pocket gopher 1 Pocket gopher 1
Slide 8
Bar Graphs
Slide 9
Data for comparative question
Slide 10
Discusion 1.The scientists use t he owl pellets to find out the
owls habits of eating and also maybe figure out where they live.And
also how many animals they eat. 2. In my pellet there were 2 pocket
gophers in my pellet.There were only twenty six in the whole grade
so that means that they were hard to find. 3.Looking at all the
grades total I think the average is three contained in one pellet.
My class average was three also there were some other classes that
had the same average and the highest was eight animals and there
was only one person who had eight and everyone else had at least
one to three. 4.There would be more prey because usually the owls
consume more than one. 5.They consume fourteen per week and seven
hundred twelve per year. 6.The most prey species that was consumed
was the vole. 7. I would encourage these farmers to shoot these
owls because they could to start to become extinct and maybe they
could also get someone to take the owl to a better place.
Slide 11
Conclusion The reason for the owl pellet investigation is to
find out what the owls eating habits are like, when going through
the pellet usually scientists sort the bones they found into
groups. The types of groups are teeth,skull, ribs,and other kinds
of bones.After sorting the bones the scientists find out by the
skull teeth or fur what type of animal it is.Some of the animals
are pocket gopher, vole, mouse shrew, and bird.A pellet it self is
things that can't be digested by the owl such as fur and bones it
is then regurgitated from the owl which forms a pellet.This is how
scientists use pellets to determine what they eat and where they
could be living in what climate.