I have covered plenty of mammals, so I thought it would be time to inform you about one of the most recognizable birds to most people. Many know this amazing bird from its feature in the Harry Potter books as Hedwig. The snowy owl resides in the far northern reaches of North America and is the largest owl of the Americas. They are known for their stunning white feathers, easily blending into the snowy habitat they call home, but due to climate change, these birds are losing this habitat very quickly.

Fig. 1 Snowy Owl

Since their natural habitat is usually in very northern, sparsely populated areas, the main threat to snowy owls is not hunting or other direct human contacts, but humans are responsible for their sharp decline. While they are not formally labeled as endangered yet (they are currently at a ‘vulnerable’ status), a drastic decline in the population of 85% has happened since 2003, leaving only 28,000 left in the wild.

The most likely cause of this decline is climate change. I previously did a post about climate change harming the arctic ecosystem, and snowy owls have not escaped these dreadful changes. The warming climate and melting ice caps of the arctic circle has caused a population decline in the prey of the snowy owl, therefore causing a decline in the snowy owls. The main prey of snowy owls is brown lemmings, small mammals similar to mice. These lemmings have very specific requirements for survival. They only come above ground when the snow has melted, and because of global warming, the snow has been melting earlier and earlier in the season. This causes the lemmings to be above ground for a longer period of time, allowing all of the predators in the area to consume more of them than usual, ultimately causing a population decline as more lemmings are killed than born each year. The decrease in their main food supply has led to the snowy owls not being able to raise as much young as they normally would.

Fig 2. Brown Lemming

The lemming population has a trend of decreases and increases, and the snowy owl population usually follows this pattern with them, but lately, there have been more decreases than increases, which ultimately worries scientists and conservationists. The snowy owl population has only been decreasing for a relatively short time now so it has not garnered as much attention as other species have, but I still felt them worthy of showcasing in my blog post for this week.

This bird is such a staple of the arctic ecosystem, and to see them slowly become endangered has broken my heart.