Owl Research Project

This is an alternative to the Owl Pellet Dissection Lab.  If you didn't do, or didn't finish, your owl pellet dissection and the construction of your skeleton, then you should do this project instead. Or you can do it to help bring up your mark.

* answer these questions in full sentences on a separate piece of paper:

1. List at least three different species of owl that live in Canada.

2. Choose one species of owl and sketch and label all the specific organisms in a food chain for that type of owl (specific means: don’t just say “mouse”; instead state what type or species of mouse.)

3. At what trophic level is the owl?

4. What order consumer is the owl?

5. Answer these questions about what a typical owl’s diet:
a) What do most owls eat?
b) Do owls have teeth?
c) How do they chew their food?
d) What is an “owl pellet”?
e) What is an owl pellet mostly made up of?
f) Sketch or paste a picture of an owl pellet.

6. Imagine that a farmer uses some pesticide in a field.  There is one unit of pesticide on each seed that the mice in that field eat.  If a mouse eats 20 seeds per day, how many seeds would a 100 day old mouse have eaten?

7. How much pesticide would an owl get in one month if it eats 2 of these 100-day-old-mice every day?

8. Find the following owl facts:
a) How many degrees can a typical owl turn their head?
b) Owls can find prey under the snow.  How do they achieve this?
c) List three adaptations that owls have that make them very good predators. Hint: think about the 5 senses that most animals have.

9. Name at least one species of owl in the world that is at risk or endangered.

10. What are some threats to owl populations?