The latest assignment we had for science was the science presentation where we had to choose an animal species that is about to be extinct or are endangered and we had to explain how they are going extinct and how we can help save their specie. the species that I had chosen was the Philippine eagle. throughout the project, I learned a lot about carbon emissions, how carbon plays a big role in their extinction, and how it’s so important for humans to help these animals.
We humans are responsible for most animal species that have already gone extinct because if humans had acted sooner we could have helped them and they would have had a chance to repopulate their species. I had to do a lot of research for this assignment as well because it was 25% of our grade but overall it was fun and I learned a lot of new things about the Philippine eagle.
Owl Pellet and Skeleton Articulation
The owl pellet and skeleton articulation was a 3 day project where we dig through a hair ball that a owl coughed up which had many bones of the rodent(s) that the owl had once ate, We then had to separate the bones from the fur and then wash the bones up and glue them together to make a skeleton of the rodent(s) the owl had once ate.
Questions:
1.) What surprised you during the dissection?
What surprised me was how delicate the bones were. If you put just a little pressure, then normal they snap in a second. Another thing that had surprised me was how many bones there actually were. Just when you think you’ve found all the bones, you look a little closer in the fur and you find more!
2.) What challenges did you face while articulating the skeleton?
2 challenges my partner and I faced was 1. looking for the smaller bones because the rodent that we had identified was a mouse, and their were tiny bones that we needed to assemble the skeleton and it was difficult trying to find them in the fur because they were so small and because if you put a little pressure more then usual it snaps and then you would have to glue the bones back together. Challenge number 2. was assembling the skeleton because it was difficult figuring out which bone goes where.
3.) What did you learn about owl diets and ecosystems?
I learnt how owls can eat pretty large rodents, and they can also eat other owls as well.
4.) How does this activity connect on what we’ve learn in class?
It connects to the food chain we had learnt about in the ecology unit and it also connects to when we had the field trip where this animal shelter place (I forgot the name) that brought some owls and eagles to show us different species and what are the pros and cons of both of the cool species.
