Barn Owls and Bones
A nonfiction article for children ages 8-12 about an Israeli project in which children assist scientists in protecting the environment
Rafi, an 8th grader in Israel, sits at his desk taking apart a barn owl pellet. An owl pellet is a small, hard ball full of tiny bones. Barn owls eat mice, rats and other rodents. The bones form pellets in owls’ stomachs. Then the owls spit up the pellets.
Taking apart owl spit-up sounds gross. But by studying the pellets, students help scientists learn two important things. They learn where the barn owls live. They also learn what kinds of rodents live there.
Farms are home to many rodents. The rodents eat grain and fruit, so farmers have less for people to buy. Farmers can kill rodents with poison. But poisons cost a lot. Even worse, they hurt the water, air, and soil.
Owls don’t hurt anything except their dinners. A barn owl family eats from 2,000 to 6,000 rodents each year. When barn owls move in, farmers need less poison. Sometimes farmers with barn owls don’t need any poison!
There’s a big problem, though. Barn owls like to nest in old wooden buildings and trees. But many parts of the world, including Israel, have few natural places for barn owl nests. Without nests, these helpful birds won’t come and raise families. How can farmers attract them?
Photo by Michael Campos on Unsplash
Scientists at Tel Aviv University came up with a good idea. They find out where barn owls are needed the most. Then they put up nesting boxes. These are bird houses made just for barn owls. Young barn owls who are looking for homes find the nesting boxes. They raise their families and help keep rodents from eating the farmer’s crops.
Rafi and other students help scientists figure out good places for the nesting boxes. Schools all over Israel participate in the program, which is run by Dr. Motti Charter and the Charter Group of Wildlife Ecology. Part the Shamir Research Institute at the University of Haifa, they work with the US Embassy in Israel, Project GAIA of the American International School, and the Israel Ministry of Education to get kids involved.
Big-city kids, farm kids, kids from mountains and kids from deserts help. Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Druze, and other kids help. Over 70 middle- and high-school classes collected information during the school year 2019-2020.
After Rafi and the other students open the pellets, they study the bones. They match the bones with pictures to decide what kind of animal the owl ate for dinner. Then they type this information onto a spreadsheet, a computer table. They learn how to turn the computer table into charts. Then their teachers return the bones, tables and charts to the scientists. The scientists check the students’ work. The information tells where they need to build more barn owl nesting boxes.
What do kids get from the project?
They learn good research skills. They learn to use the Excel computer program to make spreadsheets, charts and graphs. Some learn that they want to be research scientists or do other work to save the environment.
They also learn about bones. Kids in Israeli schools don’t learn about the human body in school. But all mammal skeletons are similar. When kids study rodent bones, they learn about human bones. This helps them understand and take good care of their own bodies.
But of all the things kids get from the program, for many the most important is knowing that they are truly helping to keep the environment safe. And that’s huge.
For Parents, Teachers and Others
My fascination with barn owls began as a child, when I stood in an old Vermont barn with the farmer, whose farm was the site of our summer vacation. He pointed out a barn owl resting on a beam high above us. My poor vision had not yet been diagnosed and I could not see it, but I was fascinated to hear that an owl and his family helped the barn cats keep the barn free of mice.
In 2022, the basis for this story, the project to use nesting boxes to bring barn owls to farm fields, along with its sister project to house kestrels, attracted interest at the Dubai Expo. Owls hunt at night; kestrels during the day. Together they can provide farms with 24-hour protection from vermin, greatly reducing or even eliminating the use of pesticides. A Moroccan ornithologist, Prof. Imad Cherkaoui, will work to expand the project in North Africa with nations that do not have diplomatic relations with Israel.1
Directions for building and siting owl nesting boxes are readily available online, such as these found at LifeHacker.com.
Web cams are located in barn owl nesting boxes in many places around the world and can be viewed by anyone with an internet connection. To peek in on owls around the world, check out The Charter Group of Wildlife Ecology, Israel, started by Prof. Motti Charter, who figures in the children’s story above. Many of these videos are live-streamed, so when owls are way from their nests there will be nothing much to see. Remember to check the time zone of the country for each video. It might be night when it is your day.
There are many Citizen Science projects across the globe. One place to find projects that you and your children can join is at citizenscience.gov.
Surkes, S., Israeli use of barn owls to control rodents heading to N. Africa, UAE, The Times of Israel, Sept. 8, 2022, https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-use-of-barn-owls-to-control-rodents-heading-to-n-africa-uae/, accessed 23 Jan. 2024