Owl Pellet Reflection

6.64% bird, 1.34% shrew, 21.14% mouse, 17.33% vole, and 50.18% rat were eaten by the owls that we investigated.

          Our class calculated all the different types owl prey we have found in owl pellets we dissected about a month ago.  We found out that owls eat rats, birds, shrews, mice, and voles.  The biggest percentage of animals eaten were rats - more than fifty percent!  Above is a pie chart of the different percentages of the animals owls ate that the class has recorded. 
          When ranking the most frequently consumed owl prey, I would say that first comes rat, then vole, then mouse, bird, and lastly, shrew.  I was surprised there, because rats are among the biggest of the prey animals listed above.  I expected smaller shrews, or even mice to be at the top of the list, because they are smaller and easier to catch.  I was wrong, since rats are at the top, and maybe that's because rats are slower and easier to see.
          If a predator expends energy when hunting, and it can either hunt 35 insects (1g each), or 1 vole (35g), it would be much smarter to hunt the vole.  If you have to hunt once, stop and eat, hunt again, stop and eat, it would be like eating a snack every five minutes.  If an owl caught one vole, it would be like eating one dinner.  You wouldn't have to keep on wasting energy getting up, walking to the kitchen, and preparing the snack every time.  It would take up a lot more energy for an owl to hunt for 35 insects rather than 1 vole.
          If the shrew population went into a deep decline, I seriously doubt that it would affect the owl population much.  Only about 1% of an owl's diet consists of shrew.  That's one in a hundred prey animals.  An owl can live without one tiny piece of prey for a day.