An Owl Pellet Dissection workshop led by Priscilla Beeton and Gillian Barnes was held on Saturday 24 August 2024. It was attended by eleven youngsters: three from the CBC Young Birders group, three from Herschel Girls School, one from Western Province Primary, and four children from Paul Greyling Laerskool in Fish Hoek.
The two-hour long workshop was held at the Zandvlei Lookout Hall in Lakeside which proved to be a great venue.
Before starting to examine the owl pellets, the learners watched a very short video entitled “What is an owl pellet?”.
Contrary to what many believe, owl pellets are NOT poo! Owls do not have teeth, so they often swallow their prey whole. Prey may include mice, shrews, small rodents and small birds.
Pellets are made up of the bones, fur and feathers that cannot be digested by the owls, and they are regurgitated, rather like the fur-balls that are regurgitated by cats.
Many people also do not realise that many birds, including raptors and kingfishers, also regurgitate pellets. They are just not so easy to find!
Each participant was issued with latex gloves, pointed sosatie sticks (to serve as dissection needles) and tweezers, as well as bone identification charts. Each pair was given one or two owl pellets and challenged to find as many bones as possible and to identify them using the ID charts. It was like a treasure hunt as they pulled away the fur and feathers from the bones, which they then washed and placed on the charts.
They were able to identify some of the prey species the owl had consumed. A couple of children even managed to put together part of the skeletons of prey animals – small rodents, shrews and even a bird.
Many thanks to Jenny Wentzel and the Vleggaar family who provided the owl pellets (mostly from Barn Owls). Also thank you to the teachers and parents who assisted and encouraged the children in this quite intense activity, and to Lisa O’Malley (People and Conservation Officer of Zandvlei Nature Reserve; Biodiversity Management Branch) who enabled us to have free use of the hall.
Photographs by Priscilla Beeton and Siv Sivertsen.
Report by Priscilla Beeton.