Question

with the given information, please answer #3-5! thanks!

ACTIVITY 3 piet of a Barn Owl objective To study the contributions of various prey to the diets of Bam owls. This will be looked at from the perspectives of numbers and biomas Materials Skulls from dissected Barn Owt pellets Owl Prey Chart Procedure There are many genera of prey that occur in both the Northwest and Southeast, as well as several that are exclusive to ane of these areaL. The folowirng chart contains 14 mammalian prey tvpes that should account for 96-100% of the prey found in your investigations. Anyother preywill be composed of birds, bats, insects, crayfiah, and small reptiles. These are occasional and too dvene to address in detall. These prey are isted as "other prey at the bottom of the worksheet. The number of asterisks () placed next to each prey type under both gepgraphic regions represents the frequency of occurrence for eacha prey type as shown in the following icale () Very common ()-Common Occasional () () Rare ODoes not occur Owl Prey Chart SOUTHEAST NORTHWEST Snalent Ocnrrences Prey Total Total Bomass Class Occurrence Prey 1alend Prey Weight Weight Teal Toal omass Pocket Gopher Thomomys () 150g Rat Sigmodon Oryzomys Aaths డ te 80 150g () (-) 150g Vole Micotus 40g (-) 40g () Mice Peromysous Mus Relthradontomys Perognothus 22g 18g 12g 25g () () (-) () 22g 18g 12g (.) (.) () () Mole Scopanus Scolopua 5sg 55g Shrew Narina Cyptods Sore (o) (..) 20g 4g Other Prey Bats Birds Insects Crayish Small Reptiles 7g 15g 1g Sg 20g 15g () () () 20g Capymante. Pesion grared to make uninled coples br ue n ary are hool bulding For adconse ar NE lor commerdal use or ale WARD'S eM3 WADS Nuadence tablehmentA igrG reved

Answer 1

3) Weight of each Sorex = 4g

To make up 100g of sorex per day the owl needs to capture 25 sorex( 25 x 4g = 100g).

Since weight of each Sigmodon = 100g the number of Sigmodon required to meet the 100g biomass requirement per day will be 1 Sigmodon.

4) Total biomass contributed by 50 insects = 50 x 1g = 50g.

Total biomass contributed by 1 rat = 1 x100g = 100g

So, clearly 1 rat contributed the most to the owls diet.

5) When we talk about quality and quantity of prey both the parameters are important because quality is essential to meet the nutritional requirement of the predator especially for juvenile population.But the quantity is more important because if the quantity is less and is insufficient for owl population then it will lead to competition and only the fittest in the group will be able to feed itself and this will effect the population density of the owls.