Snowy Owl

Scientific Name: Bubo Scandiacus
Family Name: Strigidae
IUCN Red List: Vulnerable
Trophic Level: Carnivore
Height: 27 inches & 49 – 51 inches of wings span
Weight: 40 – 70 ounces
Wingspan: Males: 116 to 165.6 cm (3 ft 10 in to 5 ft 5 in)
Females: 146 to 183 cm (4 ft 9 in to 6 ft 0 in)
Lifespan: Snowy owls can live for 10 years or more in the wild and
28 years in captivity.
Description: The snowy owl is mostly white. Often when seen in the
field, these owls can resemble a pale rock or a lump of snow on the
ground. It usually appears to lack ear tufts but very short tuft can be
erected in some situations, perhaps most frequently by the female
when she is sitting on the nest. The ear tufts measure about 20 –
25 mm (0.79 to 0.98 inches) consist of about 10 small feathers. The
snowy owl has bright yellow eyes. The facial disk is shallow and the
ear is uncomplicated. In mature males, upper parts are plain white
with usually a few dark spots on the miniature tufts, while the
underside is pure white. The adult female is usually considerably
more spotted and often slightly barred with dark brown on the crown and the underparts. Her flight and tail feathers are faintly barred
brown while the underparts are white in base colour with brown
spotting and barring on the flanks and upper breast. The chicks are
initially grayish white but quickly change to dark Gray-brown in the
mesoptile plumage. The toes of the snowy owl are extremely thickly
feathered white, while the claws are black. The snowy owl’s beak
has a shortly decurved rostrum. Owls have extremely large eyes
which are nearly the same size in large species such as the snowy
owl as those of humans. The snowy owl's eye, at about 23.4 mm
(0.92 in) in diameter, is slightly smaller than those of great horned
and Eurasian eagle-owls but is slightly larger than those of some
other large owls. Occasionally, snowy owls may show a faint
blackish edge to the eyes and have a dark Gray cere, though this is
often not visible from the feather coverage, and a black bill. The
snowy owl does have some of the noise-cancelling serrations and
comb-like wing feathers that render the flight of most owls
functionally silent. In combination with its less soft feathers, the
flight of a snowy owl can be somewhat audible at close range.
Diet: Summer Diet: Lemmings, Voles.
Winter Diet: water birds such as teal, northern pintail and
numerous alcids
Threats: Global Warming
Global Population: fewer than 100,000 individuals

The snowy owl is pure white than predatory mammals like Polar
bear and the Arctic fox.
Females can appear almost pure white both in the fields and in
captivity.
Some of the species grow paler with age after maturity.
The flight of snowy owls tends to be steady and direct and is
reminiscent to the flight of a large, slow-flying falcon.
Snowy owls must be able to see from great distances, so their
eyes are smaller than Eurasian Eagle Owls.
Snowy owls can perceive all colours but, cannot perceive
ultraviolet visual pigments.
Owls have the largest brains of any bird (the owl species) and
have increased nocturnality and predatory behaviour.
The snowy owl is a very large owl.
They are the largest avian predators of the High Arctic and are
the largest owls in the world.
This species is the heaviest and the longest winged owl in North
America, the second heaviest and longest winged owl in Europe.
Females are sometimes described as “giant” and males are
sometimes described as “neat and compact”.

Snowy owl had the highest wing loading.
The tail length of males can vary on average from 209.6 to
235.4 mm (8.25 to 9.27 in), with a full range of 188 to 261 mm
(7.4 to 10.3 in).
The tail length of females can average from 228.5 to 254.4 mm
(9.00 to 10.02 in), with a full range of 205 to 288 mm (8.1 to
11.3 in).
The snowy owl is one of the most distinct owls in the world.
No other species attains the signature white stippled sparsely
with black-brown colour, a colouring which renders their bright
yellow eyes.

The snowy owl differ in their calls from other Bubo owls, with a
much more barking quality to their version of a hooting song.
15 different calls by mature snowy owls have been documented.
The main vocalization is monotonous sequence that that normally
contains 2 – 6 (occasionally more), rough notes similar to the
rhythm of a barking dog: krooh krooh krooh krooh….
The call may end with a firm aaoow, somewhat reminiscent to the
deep-alarm call of a great black-backed gull.
They will call mainly from a perch, but also sometimes during
flight.
The krooh call of the male snowy owl may perform multiple
functions such as competitive exclusion of other males and
advertising to females.
The female has similar call to male but can be higher-pitched or
more harsh-sounding as well as single notes, which are often
consisted of two sounds.
Female snowy owls have also been known to utter chirps or high
screaming notes, similar to those of the nestlings.
Both sexes (male & female) may at times give a series of
clucking, squeals, grunts, hisses and cackles when they are
excited.
The alarm call is loud, grating, hoarse keeea.
Another hoarse bark is recorded, sometimes called a
“watchman’s rattle” call, and may be transcribed as rick, rick, rick,
ha, how, quack, quack or kre, kre, kre, kre, kre.
The female attacking to protect her nest was recorded to let out a
crowed call ca-ca-oh call, whilst other owls attacking to protect
the nest did a loud version of the typical call while circling before
dropping down.
They may also clap their beak in response to threats or
annoyances.
This sound may be the clicking of the tongue, not the beak.
The young of the snowy owl have a high-pitched and soft begging
call which develops into a strong, wheezy scream at around 2
weeks.
At the point when the young owls leave the nest around 3 weeks,
the shrill squeals they emit may allow the mothers to locate them.
The snowy owl is typically found in the northern circumpolar
regions where it makes its summer home north of latitude 60 0
north.
It is a nomadic bird, because of the population fluctuations in its
prey species can force it to relocate.
Snowy owls rest in the Arctic tundra of the northernmost stretches
of Alaska, Northern Canada, and Eurosiberia.
During the wintering, many snowy owls leave the dark Arctic to
migrate to regions further south.
Many snowy owls overwinter somewhere in the Arctic through the
winter.
Snowy owls are one of the best-known inhabitants of the Arctic
tundra.
Snowy owl breeding grounds are covered by mosses, lichens and
some rocks.
The species occur in areas with rising elevations such
hummocks, ridges, knolls, buffs and rocky outcrops.
The agricultural areas, untouched by the farmers in winter, may
have more concentrated preys than the others in Alberta.
Their preferred habitats are grasslands, pasture and other
agricultural areas.

Snowy owls may be active for some extent at both day, from
dawn to dusk, and night.
During Arctic summers, snowy owl may tend to peak in during the
twilight that is the darkest time.
The variation of activity is probably in correspondence with their
primary prey, the lemmings, and like them, the snowy owl may be
considered cathermal.
This species can withstand extremely cold temperatures
Adults and young ones have been seen to shelter behind rocks to
shield themselves from harsh winds or storms.
Snowy owls often spend majority of their time on the ground,
perch mostly on slight rise of elevation.
It has been interpreted from the morphology of their skeletal
structure (i.e., their short, broad legs) that snowy owls are not
well-suited to perching extensively in trees or rocks and prefer a
flat surface to sit upon.

They may perch more in winter, at times on hummocks,
fenceposts, telegraph poles by road, radio and transmission
towers, haystacks, chimneys and the roofs of houses and large
buildings.
Rocks may be used as perches in all seasons.
They are capable of sudden dashing movements.
Snowy owls can walk and run quite quickly, using outstretched
wings.

This owl flies with rowing wingbeats, occasionally interrupted by
gliding on stretched wings.
They are capable of swimming but usually do not do so.
They will also drink when unfrozen water is available.
Snowy owl mothers have been seen to preen their young in the
wild.
Pairs in captivity have been seen to allopreen.
Dogfights and talons may interlock if the fight between two snowy
owls continue to escalate.
Female snowy owls are territorial towards one another and may
not leave an area for up to 80 days.
But males are nomadic, they usually stay for 1-2 days in an area.
During threat displays, individuals will lower the front of the body,
stretch the head low and forward with partially extended wings
and feathers on the head and raise their back.

If continuously threatened or cornered, the posture in threat
display may become more contoured and, if pressed, the owl will
back and try to slash with its large talons.
The threat displays of males are more firm than that of the
females.
Nesting sites can be loosely clustered.
Snowy are usually solitary, during winters.
The snowy owl is a partial, fairly irregular, migrant, who is having
a very broad and patchy wintering range.
Migratory movements would be more common in America than in
Asia.
Some variety of movements recorded each autumn and snowy
owls winter annually in plains of Siberia and Mongolia
and prairies and marchlands of Canada.
The Great Plains area of southern Canada host wintering snowy
owls about 2 to 10 times more frequently than other areas of the
continent.
Wintering snowy owls, a total of 419, recorded in Duluth,
Minnesota from 1974 to 2012 would occur in large numbers if rats
are plentiful.
The snowy owls cannot breed in high numbers unless lemmings
are widely available on the tundra.
Snowy owls may hunt at any time of the day or night, but may not
attempt to do so during severe weather.
During the summer solstice, the owls appear to hunt during
“theoretical nightfall”.
Night-vision devices have been allowed to use by biologists to
observe that snowy owls hunt often during the extended night
time of northern winter.
Prey are both taken and eaten on the ground.

Like other carnivorous birds, snowy owls swallow the small prey
whole.
Strong stomach juices digest the flesh, while the indigestible
bones are compressed into oval pellets which the bird
regurgitates (vomits) it within 18 to 24 hrs after feeding.

Regurgitation often takes place at regular perches, where dozen
of pellets may be found.
These pellets determine the quantity and the types of prey the
birds have eaten.
When large prey are eaten in small pieces, pellets are not
produced.
Larger part are often torn apart, which includes the removal of
head, parts with large muscles, such as the humerus or the
breast are eaten first.
The hunting habits are similar.
Due to their less refined hearing compared to other owls, prey is
usually perceived via through vision and movement.
Snowy owls can detect prey from as far as 1.6 km away.
Snowy owls generally use a rise or a perch while hunting.
Their hunting style may recall the buzzards, with the hunting owl
sitting rather low and perching still for a long period of time.
Although their usual flight is a slow, deliberate downbeat on the
broad, fingered wings, when prey is detected from their perch,
flight may undertake with a sudden, surprisingly quick accelerated
style with interspersed wing beats.
Snowy owls frequently engage them in a brief pursuit hunting
style.
Snowy owls may engage in brief hovering flight before dropping
into prey.
When hunting fish, snowy owls will hover in a style similar to
osprey.
A dashing stoop or pounce down onto their prey, ending in a high
impact “wallop”, has been recorded.
- Another common technique is the “sweep”, wherein they fly by
  and grasp the prey while continuing to fly.

Snowy owls have been known to capture night-migrating
passerines and shorebirds.
On the wing, large and potentially dangerous birds that were
caught in air by snowy owls during daylight.
Adult females in Alberta had a better hunting rate than juvenile
females.
Males hunted from a perch more, but females and adults both
focused on smaller prey (small mammals) and have had more
success hunting than juvenile snowy owls.
Some snowy owls can survive about 40 days of fat reserves.
These owls were found to have extremely thick subcutaneous fat
deposits of around 19 to 22 mm (0.75 to 0.87 in).
Snowy owls may not infrequently exploit prey inadvertently
provided or compromised by human activities, including ducks
injured by duck hunters, birds maimed by antenna wires, various
animals caught in human traps and traplines as well
as domestic or wild prey being bred or farmed by humans in
enclosures.
The snowy owl scavenge on carrion, include reindeer body parts
brought to nests and owls follow polar bears are secondarily feed
on their kills.
Even huge marine mammals like walruses and whales can be fed
by these owls when the opportunity occurs.
Snowy owls produce a pellet averages a median of about 80 mm
x 30 mm (3.1 x 1.2 in), averaging up to 92 mm (3.6 in) in length
as in Europe.
The snowy owl is primarily a hunter of mammals.
They often live off of the northerly lemmings.
Sometimes, similar rodents like voles, can be also found in the
snowy owls diet.
It is R-selected that it is an opportunistic breeder capable Birds are commonly taken as food and may regularly include passerines, northern seabirds, ptarmigan and duck.

Consumption of other prey such as beetles, crustaceans and
occasionally amphibians and fish is reported.
Around the world, 200 species have been taken by the snowy
owl.
The snowy owl’s biology is closely tied to the availability to
lemmings.
Lemmings are the key architects of the soil, microtopography and
plant life of the entire tundra.
Overall wintering snowy owls eat more diverse foods they do
whilst breeding, furthermore coastal wintering snowy owls had
more diverse diets than inland ones.
As in summer, moderately sized water birds such
as teal, northern pintail and numerous alcids are often focused on
when hunting birds.

Fish are rarely taken anywhere but the snowy owl has been
known to prey upon Arctic char (Salvelinus alpinus) and lake
trout (Salvelinus namaycush).
The snowy owl in many ways a unique owl.
It differs from other species of owl in its ecological niche.
Only the short-eared owl, is known to breed in High Arctic.
The snowy owl shares its primary prey, the brown and collared
lemmings with the other avian predators.
When unusually breeding south in the Subarctic such as western
Alaska, Scandinavia and central Russia, the number of predators
with which the snowy owls are obligated to share prey and
compete with may be too numerous to name.
The taking of the young and eggs of snowy owls has been
committed by a large number of predators: hawks and eagles, the
northern jaegers, peregrine and gyrfalcons, glaucous gulls,common ravens, Arctic wolves (Canis lupus arctos), polar
bears, brown bears (Ursus arctos), wolverines (Gulo gulo) and
perhaps especially the Arctic fox.
Snowy owls, much like other Bubo owls, will opportunistically kill
other birds of prey and predators.
The snowy owls were observed to have preyed upon other
raptorial birds: rough-legged buzzards, American kestrels,
peregrine falcons, barn owls, other snowy owls, barred owls,
northern saw-whet owls, and short-eared owls.
Snowy owls have been known to prey on northern harries,
northern goshawks, gyrfalcons.

Both juvenile and adult Arctic foxes have been known to fall prey
to snowy owls.
In Utqiaġvik, of 239 recorded breeding attempts, 232 were
monogamous, the other 7 social bigamy.
On Baffin island, 1 male bred with 2 females and sired 11 total
fledged young.
Snowy owls breed once in a year but when food is scarce many
do not attempt to breed.
Males mark territory with singing and display fights and always
initiate.
During the display, he engages in exaggerated wing beats with a
shallow undulating and bouncy courtship flight with wings held in
a dihedral.
He (male) often drops to the ground but then flies again to glide
gently back down.
The flight is similar to the flight of a moth.
Females will answer her mate with her song during courtship.
While courting, the male often carries a lemming in his bill, then
bows with cocked tail.
He then flaps his wings open in an emphatic manner, with the
ground display being for about 5 minutes.
The female may refuse to breed if the ritual is not performed.
Nesting territory defence displays (not highly different from
courtship displays), includes undulating flight and stiffly raised
wings with bouts of exaggerated, delayed wing beats, looking like
enormous white moths exposing their white wings under the sun.
At times, competing males will interlock claws in mid-air.

Territorial and nuptial are followed by a ground display by the
male with the wings arched up in an “angel” posture, which is
visible for over a mile.
Most individuals arrive at the nest sites by April or May with a few
overwintering arctic exceptions.
Males advertises potential nest sites to his mate by scratching the
ground and spreading his wings over it.
The nest is usually a shallow depression on a windswept
eminence in the open tundra.
There seems to be a variety of qualifiers for appropriate nest
sites.
The nest site is typically snow-free and dry relative to the
surrounding environment, usually with a good view of the
surrounding landscape.
The nest may be made of ridges, elevated mounds,
high polygons, hummocks, hills, man-made mounds and
occasionally rocky outcrops.
If covered with vegetation, the taller plants that may obstruct the
view are plucked away sometimes.
The female take the most active time in the nest condition’s of
any owl species.
No owl build their nest but female snowy owls take about three
days constructing a scrape, digging her claws and rotating until a
fairly circular bowl is formed.
She (female) will not construct or add foreign to the nest.
The Utqiaġvik nest scrapes averaged 47.7 cm × 44 cm (18.8 in
× 17.3 in) in 91 with a mean depth of 9.8 cm (3.9 in) while the
scrapes were smaller in Hooper Bay, reportedly 25 to 33 cm (9.8
to 13.0 in) diameter and 4 to 9 cm (1.6 to 3.5 in) in depth.
In the lower tundra, snowy owls may too use old nests of rough-
legged buzzard as well as abandoned eagle nests.
Unlike other northerly breeding raptorial birds, the snowy owl is
not known to nest on cliffs and the like, so do not enter into direct
competition with eagles, falcons, ravens or other Bubo owls when
nesting to the relative south
Geese, ducks and shorebirds of several species known to gain
incidental protection by nesting close to snowy owls.
Conversely, the snowy owls will sometimes kill and eat both
young and adults of these birds, which implies a trade-off in the
benefits.
Egg-laying normally begins during early May to the first 10 days
of June.
Late thaws are harmful to them since they allow too little time for
the full breeding process, with particularly importance given to
good food supply in May for adults, even more so apparently than
food supply in July when young are being fed.
Late nests are possible cases of inexperienced pairs, low food
supplies, bigamy or even replacement clutches.
The clutch is extremely variable in size averaging around 7–9,
with up to 15 or 16 eggs recorded in extreme cases.
The clutch size is relatively lager than its relatives.
The average clutch size in a good year in Victoria island was 9.8,
while in a good year in Utqiaġvik the size was 6.8
The clutch is laid directly to the ground and are pure, glossy
white.
An average egg is around 56.4 mm × 44.7 mm (2.22 in × 1.76 in)
with a range of heights from 50 to 70.2 mm (1.97 to 2.76 in) and
diameter of 41 to 49.3 mm (1.61 to 1.94 in).
Egg weights are around 47.5 to 68 g (1.68 to 2.40 oz).
The average egg size is relatively small, about 20% smaller than
the Eurasian-eagle owl and 8% smaller than the great-horned owl
eggs.

Laying intervals are normally 2 days (41-50 hours).
The laying intervals can range up to 3–5 days in inclement
weather.
The laying of a clutch of 11 eggs can take 20–30 days, while a
more typical nest of around 8 eggs takes up to 16 days.
The interval between the 8 th and 9 th eggs can be up to 4 days.
Incubation begins with the first egg and is by the female only,
while she is fed by her mate.
Food is brought to the nest by males and surplus food is stored
nearby.
Females in breeding season often develop a very extensive
brood patch which in this species is fairly enormous, highly
vascular area of pink belly skin.
Incubation lasts 31.8–33 days (possibility of 27–38 days).
The female alone broods the young, often simultaneously
incubating the unhatched eggs.
Older chicks incidentally brood their younger siblings and females
may shelter the young under her wings during cold weather.

When first feeding the young, the female may dismantle the prey
to feed the young only the softer body then gradually ramping up
the size of proportions until they eat the whole body.
Aggressive encounters with parent snowy owl are said to be
“genuinely dangerous”.
The snowy owl is claimed to be the bird species with the most
powerful nest defence displays towards humans.
The usual response to sighted humans near the nest is mild but
continuous approaching irritates the parents (snowy owl).
Humans are forcefully dive-bombed upon, while other potential
threats are dealt with in a “forward-threat” where the male walks
towards the intruders, engaging an impressive feather-raising and
fanning out of the half-spread wings until they run forward and
slash with both their feet and beak.
Serious injuries have been sustained in the worst of snowy owl
defensive attacks, including cranial trauma, requiring researchers
to make the long trek back to medical care, although human
fatalities are not known.
Snowy owl parents have been seen to aggressively attacked
glaucous gull, arctic fox and dogs in breeding ground in Utqiaġvik.
Non-predatory animals like caribou in Utqiaġvik and sheep (Ovis
aries) in Fetlar are attacked as well, possibly to avoid potential
trampling of the eggs or the young. Males are said to do the
majority of nest defence but the female will also often become
involved as well.
The females in nest defence against people engaged in vocal
displays (warning and mewing calls) and that males did not
engage in mewing but did engage in most hooting calls, many
warning calls and almost all physical attacks.
In other instances, distraction displays are engaged in against
predators, with a "broken-wing act" including high, thin squeals
interspersed with weird squeaks, often taking flight only to quickly
fall from the sky and imitate a struggle.
77% of 45 distraction displays in Lapland, Sweden were by
females.
Hatching intervals are generally from 1 to 3 days, often with
37–45 hours apart.
New chicks are semi-altricial, i.e., they are helpless & blind,
initially being white and rather wet but dry by the end of the first
day.
The weight of 7 hatchlings was 35 to 55g (1.2 to 1.9oz), while 3
were 44.7g (1.58oz).
When the oldest chick is about 3 weeks, the female will start to
hunt as well as the male and both may directly feed the young
although in some cases they may not need hunt very much if
lemmings are particularly numerous.
Caches of lemmings around a nest may include more than 80
lemmings that can support the family.
Unlike many owls, the chicks of snowy owls are not known to
behave aggressively toward one another or to engage in siblicide,
perhaps in part due to the need for energy conservancy.
When they are about 2 weeks, the chicks may begin to walk
around the nest site.
Leaving the nest is thought to likely be an anti-predator strategy.
The male snowy owl may drop fresh prey deliveries directly on
the ground near the wandering young. After about three weeks of
age, the young may wander fairly widely, rarely to 1 km (0.62 mi),
but usually stay within 500 m (1,600 ft) of the nest mound.
Threat postures by young in reaction to researchers were first
noticeable at about 20–25 days of age and common at about 28
days and the chicks can be impressively quick and agile-footed.
The first fledgling occurs at around 35–50 days, and by 50–60
days the young can fly well and hunt on their own.
The total care period is for 2–3.5 months, increasing in length
with increased size of the brood.

The snowy owl seems to markedly inconsistent in regard to
breeding every year, often taking at least up to two years
between attempts and sometimes as much as nearly a decade.
7 satellite-marking females in Canada proved that they did breed
in consecutive years, with 1 breeding over 3 consecutive years.

There, from 4–5 nests were recorded annually in Utqiaġvik.
The Utqiaġvik nests bore 3 to 10 sized-clutches with a mean of 6
eggs per nest
The main determinable causes of nest failure were deemed to
be starvation and hypothermia.
A number of Norwegian and Finnish nests were known to fail due
to severe black fly parasitism.
The oldest snowy owl in captivity can live 25 to 30 years.
Unusual lifespans in the wild reach around 10 years.
Of 71 dead snowy owls found in winter in the northern Great
Plains, 86% died from assorted traumas, including collisions with
automobiles and other, usually manmade, objects as well
as electrocutions and shooting.
1 fledgling snowy owl in Fetlar was found dead due
to pneumonia and Staphylococcus while a second died
from Aspergillosis.
Nest-departed young in Utqiaġvik were vulnerable to starvation,
leading to hypothermia and pneumonia.
The snowy owl may be effected more severely by blood
parasitism than other raptors, due to lowered immunity.
They appear to have lower levels of ectoparasites like chewing
lice than in other large owls per large samples from Manitoba.
The snowy owls averaged about 3.9 chewing lice per host against
7.5 for great grey owls and 10.5 for great horned owls.
This species presence and numbers is dependent on amount of
food available.
In "lemming years", snowy owls can appear to be quite abundant
in habitat.
Numbers of snowy owls are difficult to estimate even within
studies that take place over decades due to the nomadic nature
of adults
An exact count of 4,871 individuals were seen on surveys
between the Indigirka and Kolyma river.
The numbers estimated by Partners in Flight and other authors by
the 2000s was that North America held about 72,500 snowy owls,
about 30% of which were juveniles.
In the 1990s, the Canadian population of snowy owls were
estimated at 10,000 to 30,000.
Alaska is the only state with breeding snowy owls.
Partners in Flight and the IUCN estimated that the world
population was roughly 200,000–290,000 individuals as recently
as the 2000s.
It is now believed that there are only 14,000–28,000 mature
breeding pairs of snowy owls in the world.
During the lemming declines, the number of nesting females may
drop down to as low as 1,700 worldwide.
Due to the small and rapidly declining population, the snowy owl
was up listed in 2017 to being a vulnerable species by the IUCN.
Of 438 band encounters in the USG banding laboratory, almost
all causes of death could not be determined and were correlated
with human interference.
34.2% or 150 were dead due to unknown causes, 11.9% were
shot, 7.1% were hit by automobiles, 5.5% were found dead or
injured on highways, 3.9% were collision from towers or wires,
2.7% were in animal traps, 2.1% in airplane bird strikes, 0.6%
were entangled while the remaining 33.3% recovered injured due
to assorted or unknown causes.
Snowy owls are endangered by heavy airport usage resulting in
bird strikes.
Many such collisions are known in Canada and also in Siberia
and Mongolia.
Despite their danger to planes, no human fatalities have been
recorded in collisions with this species.

The species is locally vulnerable to pesticides.
In Norway, potential sources of disturbance near the nests
include tourists, recreation, reindeer husbandry, motorised traffic,
dogs, photographers, ornithologists and scientists.
Radio-tagging of snowy owls may cause some unclear harmful
effect on snowy owl make the owls more vulnerable to death.

Snowy owls can be quite cautious as they are not hunted by
Circumpolar peoples.
The snowy owl was one of the most ill-treated owl species.
In the irruption of 1876–1877, an estimated 500 snowy owls were
shot, with similar numbers in 1889–1890 and an estimated 500–1,000 killed in Ontario alone during 1901–1902 invasion and about 800 killed in the 1905–1906 invasion.
Historically, the snowy owl was hunted as food by the Indigenous
people of Arctic.
The consumption of snowy owls by humans has been proven as
far back as ancient cave deposits in France and elsewhere, and
they have even been considered as one of the most frequent food
species for early humans.
Siberian snowy owls are frequently victim to baited fox traps, with
possibly up to around 300 killed in a year based upon very rough
estimates.
Warfarin poisoning in use as rodenticides are known to kill some
wintering snowy owls, including up to six at Logan Airport alone.
Mercury concentrations, most likely through bioaccumulation,
have been detected in snowy owls in the Aleutian island but it is
not known whether fatal mercury poisoning has occurred.
PCBs may have killed some snowy owls in concentration.
Some airports have advocated and instituted the practice of
shooting owls to avoid bird strikes.
Climate change is now widely perceived to perhaps the primary
driver of the snowy owl's decline.
As temperatures continue to rise, abiotic factors such as
increased rain and reduced snow are likely to effect lemming
populations and, in turn, snowy owls.
These and potentially many other issues (possibly including
modifying migrating behaviour, vegetation composition, increased
insect, disease and parasite activities, risk of hyperthermia) are a
matter of concern.

The Harry Potter books by J. K. Rowling and the subsequent films of the same name, feature a snowy owl named Hedwig.
Concern was expressed by some in the media that the popularity
of the Harry Potter films would cause an increase in the illicit owl
trade of snowy owls.
However, there was no strong evidence of an increase in snowy
owl's confiscated from the black market, despite a larger than
typical number of snowy owls being reported at wildlife centres.

The EADS Harfang, the drone aircraft developed by the French Air Force, is named after for the snowy owl Harfang des neiges.
The snowy owl Harfang des neiges is the avian symbol for
Quebec and French-Canadians.

Snowy Owl

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