Owl leftovers.Name: -- OWL LEFTOVERS You read in "Night Owl" (p. 12) that barn owls barn owl Any of several species of nocturnal birds of prey (genus Tyto), sometimes called monkey-faced owls because of their heart-shaped facial disk and absence of ear tufts. Barn owls are about 12–16 in. are ace in nabbing prey. What do they eat? A younger owl will sometimes eat 12 mice, while an adult will eat one large rat per night. Other prey that are on the owl's menu: shrews, moles Moles Definition A mole (nevus) is a pigmented (colored) spot on the outer layer of the skin (epidermis). Description Moles can be round, oval, flat, or raised. They can occur singly or in clusters on any part of the body. , baby rabbits, frogs, lizards, insects, and birds. Although an owl eats its prey whole, it cannot digest the animal's bones and hair. About 8 to 12 hours after eating its meal, the bird regurgitates an owl pellet pel·let n. 1. A small pill; a pilule. 2. A small rod-shaped or ovoid mass, as of compressed steroid hormones, intended for subcutaneous implantation in body tissues to provide timed release over an extended period of time. , or a package consisting of bones and fur. You can learn a lot about an owl's feeding habits by analyzing the contents in these pellets. Students at Chinook Middle School Chinook Middle School can mean one of three schools in the US state of Washington:
adj. 1. Botany Divided into many deep, narrow segments: dissected leaves. 2. Geology Cut by irregular valleys and hills. Adj. 1. 184 owl pellets and compiled the data in the table below. Use the information to complete the following: ANALYSIS: Calculate the relative abundance of each prey species to complete the data table. We did the first one for you.
Dissection Results for -- Owl Pellets
(number)
PREY TOTALS RELATIVE ABUNDANCE
SPECIES
Fraction Decimal Percent
Mice and rats 230 230/307 .75 79
Birds 3
Shrews 21
Voles 46
Moles 7
TOTAL PREY 307 1/1 1.0 100
1. Each owl's appetite differs. Suppose one owl produces one pellet per day. Use the information in the table above to calculate the average number of prey per day. 2. If the class dissected 700 owl pellets, based on the calculated relative abudance, how many birds would you expect to find? GRAPH IT: On a separate piece of paper, use the above data to construct the following: 1. A bar graph showing the number and different types of prey species found in the pellets. 2. A pie chart A graphical representation of information in which each unit of data is represented as a pie-shaped piece of a circle. See business graphics. showing the percentage of each prey species found. CONCLUSION: On a separate piece of paper, answer the following questions in complete sentences. 1. What can owl pellets tell researchers about the owls that they study? 2. According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. data collected by Chinook Middle School students, what are the owls' main prey species? 3. Which of the two graphs gives a reader the quickest and best sense of what the owls in this study ate? Explain your choice. TAKE IT FURTHER: How do barn owls help farmers? Use the above data to support your answer. ANSWERS 1. 1.67 2. 7 CONCLUSION: 1. Owl pellets can tell a researcher about owls' feeding preferences. 2. Owls mostly eat mice and rats. 3. Answers will vary. TAKE IT FURTHER: Barn owls live in and around fields, and eat mostly mice and rats. They help keep these rodent rodent, member of the mammalian order Rodentia, characterized by front teeth adapted for gnawing and cheek teeth adapted for chewing. The Rodentia is by far the largest mammalian order; nearly half of all mammal species are rodents. populations "in check" by removing weaker rodent members. Weak mice and rats are easiest to catch, thus reducing the number of rodents munching munching - Exploration of security holes of someone else's computer for thrills, notoriety or to annoy the system manager. Compare cracker. See also hacked off. on the farmers' crops.
OWL LEFTOVERS, TE 5
ANALYSIS: 184 owl pellets
PREY TOTALS RELATIVE ABUNDANCE
SPECIES
Fraction Decimal Percent
Mice and rats 230 230/307 .75 75
Birds 3 3/307 .01 1
Shrews 21 21/307 .07 7
Voles 46 46/307 .15 15
Moles 7 7/307 .02 2
TOTAL PREY 307 1/1 1.0 100
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