Built for the Dark: teacher key

Great Horned Owls, grade 8 edition, written for 8th grade. A great horned owl's eyes, ears and feathers are suited to the night. Read what each does, what the owl eats, and how it nests and raises its young.

Read the book. Print this page for the key.

Questions and answers

1. What does binocular vision give a great horned owl?
   • Excellent frontal vision but weaker peripheral vision (answer)
   • Color vision in the dark
   • Eyes that move in their sockets
2. What do great horned owls have that keep them warm in colder climates?
   • A nest of snow
   • Soft, fluffy feathers (answer)
   • Thick fur
3. About how many mice per year may a great horned owl eat?
   • About 40
   • Exactly 1
   • More than 4,000 (answer)
4. What does the Animal Diversity Web say about great horned owl territories?
   • They are generally 5.26 to 5.56 square kilometers (answer)
   • They are 5 meters wide
   • They change every day
5. Besides a borrowed nest, where else may a great horned owl nest?
   • In a mailbox
   • On a cliff ledge (answer)
   • On a boat
6. Squeaky-voiced rodents make high-frequency sounds. Why is that useful to a great horned owl?
   • It cannot hear anything
   • It hears only low sounds
   • It is keenly attuned to high-frequency sounds (answer)

Words

• binocular: two-eyed
• peripheral: at the sides
• perch: a high seat
• pellets: small lumps
• territory: claimed area