GEORGE NEWS - James Fraser-Lyle sent these photos of two owl 'pellets' that he found on the Gwaiing bridge construction site where he works. He was amazed when a colleague told him what these actually were and wanted to share it with other readers.
George Herald contacted CapeNature for more information and fauna ecologist Dr Martine Jordaan explained:
Owls feed mainly on rodents and other small mammals and typically swallow their prey whole or in large chunks.
As owls do not have crops like most other birds, the food passes directly to the first stomach chamber, called the proventriculus, and then to the second chamber, the gizzard.
Here indigestible material such as teeth, fur and bones are churned into a tightly packed mass through the grinding actions of the gizzard and the digestive acid and enzymes of the stomach . . .
The pellet must be expelled as the hard bits such as bones may cause damage to the owl's lower digestive tract if it passed through as scat.
Pellets typically form several hours after the owl has eaten . . . The presence of a pellet prevents the owl from feeding again, so the pellet is often regurgitated shortly before hunting again.
Read more about this intriguing topic on Thursday in George Herald as well as online.
The pellets found on the Gwaiing bridge construction site. James Fraser-Lyle suspects the owl nests on the underside of the bridge.
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