Pellet

Pellet are small particles typically created by compressing an original material. Specific items often termed 'pellet' include:

Pikmin (series)

Pikmin (ピクミン, Pikumin) is a real-time strategy video game series created by Shigeru Miyamoto and developed by Nintendo. The games focus on directing a horde of plant-like creatures called Pikmin, which are used to collect items, destroy obstacles, and fight giant monsters.

The series currently features three entries. Pikmin and Pikmin 2 were both released for the Nintendo GameCube and later ported to the Wii as New Play Control! titles and Pikmin 2 as a "Nintendo Selects" game. A third installment, Pikmin 3, was released for Wii U. A fourth title, Pikmin 4, has been confirmed to be in development, but it has not been announced which console it will be released on.

Gameplay

The Pikmin games all focus on exploring an unknown planet (which is heavily implied to be Earth), controlling a crowd of Pikmin creatures. Pikmin are intelligent multi-colored plant-animal hybrids that willingly follow the orders of their leader, Captain Olimar, a tiny alien from the planet Hocotate. Pikmin are directed to perform a number of tasks, such as fighting monsters and retrieving objects. Because individual Pikmin are small and weak against most predators, it is the responsibility of the player to direct the Pikmin away from hazards and launch attacks that quickly put enemies into submission. Game time is divided into single days, in which the player is encouraged to accomplish as much as possible before sunset.

Pellet (ornithology)

A pellet, in ornithology, is the mass of undigested parts of a bird's food that some bird species occasionally regurgitate. The contents of a bird's pellet depend on its diet, but can include the exoskeletons of insects, indigestible plant matter, bones, fur, feathers, bills, claws, and teeth. In falconry, the pellet is called a casting.

The passing of pellets allows a bird to remove indigestible material from its proventriculus, or glandular stomach. In birds of prey, the regurgitation of pellets serves the bird's health in another way, by "scouring" parts of the digestive tract, including the gullet. Pellets are formed within six to ten hours of a meal in the bird's gizzard (muscular stomach).

Ornithologists may collect one species' pellets over time to analyze the seasonal variation in its eating habits. One advantage of collecting pellets is that it allows for the determination of diet without the killing and dissection of the bird. Pellets are found in different locations, depending on the species. In general, roosting and nesting sites are good places to look: for most hawks and owls, under coniferous trees; for barn owls, at the bases of cliffs or in barns and silos; for yet other species of owls, at their burrows or in marsh and field grasses.