Subject: [Tweeters] Snowy owl pellets?
Date: Tue Dec 1 14:31:42 PST 2020
From: THOMAS BENEDICT - benedict.t at comcast.net

Indeed, I heard a story of someone collecting owl pellets from under the pine grove near the Green River Natural Resources Area in Kent, then dissecting them with their children at the kitchen table. And another story of a workshop at Camp Long where Cub Scouts went on an owl prowl and dissected pellets afterwards. Hope they were legal.

Tom Benedict
Seahurst, WA


> On 12/01/2020 1:44 PM Mike Wagenbach <wagen at uw.edu> wrote:

>

> There are at least a couple of companies that sell owl pellets for educational purposes. A quick search showed one in CA and one here in Bellingham.

>

> I bought a box from the Bellingham operation at least a dozen years ago, for the kids to dissect them as entertainment at my kid's 5th birthday party. (4th? 6th? I forget) They were a big hit. At the time, they offered special pellets (at a higher price) that contained bird or mole parts, presumably sorted by having recognizable bits showing on the surface. That no longer seems to be the case, so they may have been warned that this could have some legal consequences. I'm too lazy to search for any news that anyone was ever actually charged in such a case.

>

> On Tue, Dec 1, 2020 at 1:06 PM < mcallisters4 at comcast.net mailto:mcallisters4 at comcast.net > wrote:

>

> > > There's state law which has a prohibition against possessing wildlife found dead (below). Wildlife, though, has an exclusion for the family Muridae, Old World rats and mice, which might apply to the parts likely to be found in an urban owl pellet. Last I knew, the family Muridae included much more than the old world rodents that have been naturalized here. I included many of ournative rodents. If that's still the case, I'm not sure if the modifier, "Old World rats and mice," provides an adequate distinction between the introduced species that are exempted here and the native species.

> >

> > Kelly McAllister

> >

> > >

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