The Question, and Hypothesis

Question: Will the mexican spotted owl's diet composition noticeably  change between the different parts of mating season?

Hypothesis:
We hypothesize a slight change in the Mexican Spotted Owl's diet compositions across the four different stages of the mating season.
Null:
The prey selection will not noticeably vary with the different parts of the mating season.

Response (Dependent) variable: the variation in diet composition (percentages of birds, rodents (wood rats, voles, rabbits), insects, & reptiles)
Explanatory (Independent) variable: The different parts of the mating season (Courtship, Incubation, Nestling, Fledging )

Procedure:  With the data we already have,  we will individually analyze each year by comparing the diet composition in the four different parts of the mating season. This will be done by determining the percentages of what composes the owls' diets within the mating stages.

Courtship: March- mid april
Incubation:15 april-end of may (1 june)

Mating: to bring animals together for breeding purposes
Fledging: to bring up a young bird until it is able to fly
Incubation: the act or process of incubating
Brooding:to sit upon eggs to hatch, as a bird; incubate
Nestling: a young bird not yet old enough to leave the nest

Intorduciton:  Mating season consists of two different parts: Incubation or brooding, which is when the male owl incubates the egg and the female owls sits upon the eggs to hatch. The second part is Fledging, which is raising the fledglings until they are able to fly. Through our research on past examinations of the spotted owls pellet, it was concluded that the main part of the biomass consisted of wood rats and that this will be the same as ours because these samples were taken during the mating season just like ours. This shows that there will be no major change in diet composition through out the mating season. We do believe though, that it may very a little bit since during the owls' mating season it is also mating season for many other animals, making them easier for the owl to catch. And during fledging the chicks can only eat bugs as first as they work their way up to eat bigger animals, which we will see in the biomass.

Mating season break down:
Courtship (male and female hunting, but male showing off to female) - Feb. 15 - April 15
Incubation (Male only hunting)- April 16- May 31
Nestling (male only hunting)- June 1- 30th
Fledging (both hunting)- July 1st- August
September- chicks leaving, adult pellets only