LJA students experienced hands-on with owl pellets this past week. An owl pellet is a tightly packed mass of bones, fur, and anything else an owl is unable to digest. An owl cannot digest anything other than the meat of its prey. Bones, claws, and other indigestible parts are squeezed into a hard pellet, which the Owl spits up.
Each student was given a sanitized pellet to dissect and to discover the kind of an animal or animals the owl ate. Plastic gloves were worn to protect their hands. They broke the owl pellet in half. Out came the tweezers and the packed fur was slowly pulled away from bones, teeth, shoulder blades, etc.
A bone sorting chart was posted so students could compare the prey’s tiny bones with bone examples on the chart. They found and identified front leg bones, hind leg bones, a shrew’s skull, a rodent’s skull, and several shoulder blades. Students also discovered that rodent bones are similar to human bones.
When we take the time to look, we can see our Creator’s meticulous handiwork everywhere, even in an owl pellet.
Susan zimmermann
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