A couple of days ago (before the easter holiday started) we did an experimental work in Biology which didn't seem really appealing at first, but ended up being fun and interesting. We are still in the topic of ecology, so the experimental work wanted to show us how the loss of biomass in the different trophic levels is actually expressed in nature.
The experimental work consisted in dissecting Owl Pellet. Pellet is the mass from the food that can’t be digested and is regurgitated by some species of carnivorous birds such as Hawks and owls. This mass can present indigested feathers, hair, insect exoskeletons and even bones from small vertebrates such as rats or mice.
What we tried to do in the experiment consisted in dig into the pellet with the aim of finding bones from this type of small mammals, and I have to say even if it looked a bit nasty at first, it ended up being pretty addictive and exciting to even being able to find skulls, jaws, legs or even full skeletons of rats.
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