Gag Me!

Today we dissected owl pellets. For those of you who may not know what that means, let me explain a bit. Owls usually eat their food whole. The parts that cannot be digested, like bones and feathers, are formed into a ball called a pellet. These pellets are then coughed up, basically. By dissecting a pellet, you can see exactly what the owl ate.

I found a chart on the internet to help identify the bones and what animals they came from.

When we were done I had the kids list what they found. They found shrew skulls, jaws, pelvic bones, ribs, and scapulas; mole skulls, pelvic bones, scapulas and ribs; bird pelvic bones and hind limbs; and rodent skulls and jaws (with teeth in some). Like I said...gag me!