Summary
A barn owl hunts in near-total darkness and swallows its prey whole -- then coughs up a neat pellet of bones and fur. Deep Look shows how the owl's silent flight and sharp senses make it a master night hunter, and why those pellets are a window into the food web.
Viewer safety
This episode shows a predator eating real prey (a normal part of nature science) -- preview if that might unsettle your class.
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Teaching resources
Discussion questions
Talk about it
A barn owl's soft-edged feathers let it fly silently and its sharp hearing pinpoints prey in the dark. It swallows prey whole and later spits up the parts it can't digest as a pellet -- a clue to what it ate and how energy moves through the food web.
- What helps a barn owl hunt silently at night?
- What is an owl pellet made of, and what can it tell us?
- How does eating a mouse pass energy up the food web?
Quick work-a-long
Vocabulary: pellet, food web, predator, energy.
Try it: Imagine an owl pellet with bones inside. Write what an owl ate and how that shows energy moving from mouse to owl.