The Owl Pages

Short-eared Owl Ejecting Pellet

By Vickey Chauhan

Little Rann of Kutch (LRK), Gujarat, India.

Short Eared Owl Asio flammeus is wide spread winter migrant owl here in India. Little Rann of Kutch is a salt marsh Located in Gujarat State. It is world's last refuge of the Indian Wild Ass Equus hemionus khur. LRK is a major part of the Indian Wild Ass Sanctuary, spread over 4954 Km2. LRK is famous for Migratory Raptors in winters.

Because of the high pH in the stomach of owls, they have a reduced ability to digest bone and other hard parts; they eject/Regurgitate pellets containing the remains of their prey. I was lucky enough to capture whole process of regurgitating pellets process of a Short Eared Owl. Here are images in sequence and also a close-up of the pellet.

Short-eared Owl regurgitating pellet
Short-eared Owl regurgitating pellet
Short-eared Owl regurgitating pellet
Short-eared Owl regurgitating pellet
Short-eared Owl regurgitating pellet
Short-eared Owl regurgitating pellet
Short-eared Owl regurgitating pellet
Short-eared Owl regurgitating pellet
Short-eared Owl regurgitating pellet
Short-eared Owl pellet

Page updated 2016-12-05