Watch Barn Owls Swallow Rodents Whole | Deep Look

[Music] scarfing down their food whole keeps barn owls moving after all these hungry birds gotta eat and there are lots of little rodents to hunt barn owls need a hole to nest in and when a tree isn't available they'll use a building or an owl box like this one in california's napa valley scientists keep tabs on the owls inside wine growers invite barn owls to raise their young in the boxes because owls are pest control machines i mean a barn owl family can kill about 3 500 varmints a year they don't take them all out but they can make a dent they particularly like gophers like this stunner right here their constant tunneling damages roots and irrigation lines [Music] and then there's voles which gnaw on the grapevines two-week old owl already has the hang of it but how the heck does it keep down all that food [Music] well it doesn't meet the owl pellet check out this furball and here's a jaw gnarly the secret to turning this into this is its stomach it has two chambers the first one oozes digestive juices like our stomach the second one the gizzard squeezes the remains with powerful muscles the fats and proteins get absorbed the fur and bones become tightly compacted after about eight hours in the gizzard the result is one of these beauties for researchers like laura ichavez from cal poly humboldt pellets are forensic evidence she carefully dissects them to find out how many pesky gophers and voles the owls took care of the tail still has skin on it [Music] [Music] this unlucky rodent had a small skull it could be a vole [Music] but then she examines the teeth the teeth are actually looking more like a gophers they're kind of circular surrounded by a white ring of enamel and the first and second teeth are joined by a bridge classic gopher trademarks if it's a gopher it's a very young one because this is on the small side sometimes more than one carcass is crammed into a single pellet this one had two gophers wine growers love barn owls for their prolific appetites but researchers still don't know whether vineyards are an ideal place to raise an owl family [Music] christian cortes a researcher at cal poly humboldt studies young owls to see how well they're growing [Music] after covering their head to calm them down he takes a drop of blood and plucks a feather they will tell him if the outlet is getting enough to eat researchers want to know do owls have enough open space to hunt in and do the toxic chemicals napa wine growers sometimes use to kill rodents end up hurting the owls too as scientists explore these questions we'll find out if barn owls are really getting a good deal hey deep peeps i'm science journalist maddie safaya sitting in for laura until she returns this fall do you know what makes owls such quiet deadly hunters watch our episode about how owls fly to find out also check out a wild new show on pbs tara called far out it explores how changes in science technology and culture are reshaping life on earth tell them deep look sent you thanks [Music]

Channel: Deep Look

Views: 358,156

Keywords: 4K, PBS, Tyto furcata, animal video, animals, baby owls, barn owl, barn owl chicks, barn owls, birds, bones, deep look, digest, dissecting owl pellets, dissection, documentary, education, egestion, experiment, gizzard, gop, macro, nature, owl, owl box, owl eating mouse, owl pellet, owl pellet dissection, owl pellet regurgitation, owl pellets, owl pellets dissection, owls, pellet, regurgitation, science, vineyard, vole, what are owl pellets?, what do barn owls eat, what's inside owl pellets, wild

Id: x-mJkak30v0

Length: 4min 55sec (295 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 09 2022