A few months ago, we got a new curriculum from our local zoo. It’s a great curriculum that allows kids to really get to know the animals they see at the zoo. The best thing about it? It’s free! (Read: paid for by our tax dollars–lol!) Anyway, this week, we finally got around to doing one of the lessons. The kids picked the owl unit. The whole unit was fun, but the best part was the owl pellet dissection!
Owl Pellet Dissection at Home
Do you know what an owl pellet is?
It’s puke. Owl. Puke.
And yet, it’s not gross. It doesn’t stink, it’s not slimy, and it’s not dirty. It’s basically a ball of hair, bones, feathers, and scales. See, owls eat the entire small animal and then cough back up whatever they can’t digest in a nice, compact little ball. And we got to dissect one today!
Opening the Pellet
When we first started unwrapping the owl pellet, the kids were a little leery.
But as they started picking apart the owl pellet, they were less grossed out and more interested. With the three of them, they took about an hour carefully picking tiny bones out of the owl pellet. They each found a scull, a jaw bone, and lots of tiny teeth, and other bones. We also found things that looked like scales or maybe beetle wings. It was hard to be sure.
After picking through everything, we laid it all out to examine it.
We really had fun trying to identify what each bone was and what animal it came from. It was also really neat to see the different kinds of fur and try to identify those as well.
Want to do owl pellet dissection at home? You can order your owl pellet here.
To identify the bones you find, there are lots of websites, but this one is really helpful because it has actual pictures. This one is also really helpful because it has things sorted by animal and a finished skeleton picture at the end.
This was a really fun project and a science lesson that, although interesting and memorable, wasn’t all that difficult for *me*. That’s what every homeschool mom wants, right? So pick up your owl pellets and get dissecting!
Have you ever dissected owl pellets?
Tell me about it in the comments! What was the coolest thing you found inside? Did you enjoy it as much as we did?
Leave a Reply