Ever heard of this?

This past spring break my aunt came down from Austin for a visit. She is a fabulous 3rd grade teacher, and she infomed me of a new craze in elementary life science classrooms across the nation: owl pellets.

An owl pellet is really code for owl vomit. When an owl eats a field mouse, do you ever wonder what it does with all that fur and bones? Me either. But apparently they form it in to a ball (i.e., pellet) and throw it up. Some adventurous person came along and was not fooled by its appearance as furry fecal matter and decided to poke around and reform the bones nestled within. Then he realized you can make money selling these little balls of refuse and VIOLA! A business is born. And business is booming.

It has become popular in many classrooms because it is considered more humane than disecting a frog--since the owls will eat field mice regardless of our feelings about it. Students unwrap the refridgerated pellet out of its tin foil casing, pick apart their respective pellet and attempt to piece together the bones. Sounds like smelly work.

My aunt said she would bring me back an extra one to play with since I missed out in elementary school. I'll let you know how it goes...

Note: Dirk has just informed me that at his school's Science Club has disected them. He got to help them out with it. He said they didnt smell because they superheat them to kill off bacteria. He said you can figure out what your owl ate by the shape of the skull. Interesting.