
During the first trimester, one thing we did was dissect owl pellets. An owl pellet is a mass of undigested remains of a meal that is coughed up by an owl after consuming its prey. An owl regurgitates,food that is already swallowed is ejected from the mouth, because an owl does not have teeth. This means that since the owl can not chew the prey it swallows it whole. Then the prey enters into the digestive tract. This part of the stomach has enzymes and acids to aid in digestion. Next,the food travels to the second part of the stomach, the gizzard. The gizzard is a muscular organ that grinds the food and ”filters” indigestible parts from traveling into the intestines. The pellet is formed from the hair, bones or feathers that are left in the gizzard. The pellet will take several hours to form and several more before it is regurgitated. The owl cannot eat again until this pellet is expelled.
I found this dissection very intriguing and i learned a lot. I liked putting the bones of the prey together and figuring out what animal i had. The hardest part i think was finding the toes and fingers in the mass of hair yet it was still fun. I would like to do this again someday and cant wait for other experiments this year.