Purpose and Hypothesis: The question I am exploring is what do Barn Owls eat? I think that I will be able to find out what owls eat by looking at what is inside the owl pellets.

Analysis of Data: I took apart ten barn owl pellets. The only kinds of bones I found were rodent bones. I found bones of voles and rats. I found more vole bones than any other kind of bones. I did not find any bones from birds, reptiles, or fish. I also did not find any pieces of insects in the pellets.

I found that pellets don't always have the same number of animals in them. Big pellets had more bones in them than little pellets. The littlest pellet I

checked had the bones of only one vole. the biggest pellet had bones from six voles. Most pellets had two or three animals in them.

Summary and Conclusion: I found out that my hypothesis was right. When I took apart the pellets, I found bones that were left from the animals the owls ate. By matching the number of bones with pictures of the animals, I could tell how many animals the owl ate and what kinds of animals the owl ate. I found out that Barn Owls eat more voles than anything else.

Application: Looking at owl pellets can help scientists understand more about owls. It can also help us know how to protect owls. When I was doing my experiment, I thought it would be interesting to know why Barn Owls eat more voles than anything else. If I studied Barn Owls I could find out if it was because there were more voles, or because they were easy to catch.