The Amazing Snowy Owl

The snowy owl is a large, almost all white owl that gained popularity when one was featured in the popular Harry Potter movies as Hedwig. These owls are also called the Bubo scandiacus. The snowy owl has quite a unique habitat, and even has been a pet to some families in other countries where owning an owl is legal. Snowy owls typically live in the arctic tundra and do not make very good pets. They are active birds during the day and night time all year round.

In the winter time, snowy owls are often found along shorelines of lakes and the ocean. They can also be found on agricultural fields and airport land. The snowy owl will mainly live in the Arctic tundra in the trees. The Arctic tundra is a desert-like climate. The Arctic tundra is located across northern Alaska, Siberia, and Canada. It has lengthy and freezing winters and short intense summers. In the Arctic tundra the average temperature is around 10 to 20 degrees Fahrenheit, or -12 to -6 degrees Celsius.

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The Arctic tundra gets less than 10 inches of snow and rain per year. Snowy owls also breed in the arctic tundra. Snowy owls usually live alone with their mate, and children until they are old enough to live on their own.

When snowy owls mate, they mate for life. Females lay from 3 to 11 eggs at a time. They lay the eggs in a nest they have built on the ground. Snowy owls mainly consume mammals. Lemmings make up most of the Snowy owl’s diet, and lemming population numbers rise and fall naturally.

Occasionally, if there is not enough prey around them to feed the baby owls, they will not lay a single egg until the supply of food increases. Males catch prey and feed it to nesting females, nest-departed chicks, and themselves. They are also known to eat birds. Snowy owls will eat the species that are the easiest to catch in their current habitat of that season. Unlike most owls that hunt only at night, snowy owls are also diurnal and they hunt during both the day and night. Like the other carnivorous birds, they swallow their small prey whole. Snowy owls are okay with people. They can also be owned as pets in the UK, but not in the US. The demand for owls as pet has grown dramatically since the release of the Harry Potter books and movies. Hedwig, the snowy owl, was Harry’s devoted companion and mail-delivery owl. Hedwig was so influential in the world that she inspired some people to purchase owls as pets, before discovering that owls were not the fun companions that the fictional Hedwig was to Harry. This set off a wave of abandoned pet owls across the United Kingdom. J.K. Rowling(the author of the books) was concerned about the fate of those abandoned owls. She wrote on her twitter, “if it is true that anybody has been influenced by my books to think that an owl would be happiest shut in a small cage and kept in a house, I would like to take this opportunity to say as forcefully as I can: please don’t”.

There is a little community of people who legally breed owls in captivity and openly sell them to the British public. If a person wanted to own a snowy owl as a pet, in the countries where it is legal of course, there are some important needs they will have to provide for them. Because snowy owl’s can fly, their cage has to be big enough for them to fly around in. A snowy owl’s Diet is strictly carnivorous. They should be fed at least one lemming or rat, which have a value of around three dollars each, a day. Snowy owls get very attached to their caretakers naturally, so they might not accept any visitors coming in your house. There is also a possibility they might attack your guests. Another thing that is extremely important is finding a vet who is capable of providing it proper treatment. This is unusually difficult. It is required to take the owl to the nearest aviary every time they gets sick.

If the owl is being domesticated without the necessary permits, then the chances of a vet giving them treatment is low. If a zoo was about to receive four snowy owls, their habitat would need to be made to look like the Arctic tundra, as that is where they spend most of their time. Snowy owls usually live alone, without any other species besides their prey, and are very solitary and territorial. It is probably best if they are kept in the smallest groups possible. Four snowy owls kept in the same area will work. Overall, snowy owls do not make very good pets and are very hard to care for. Even though many zoos have them they are handled by trained professionals. Snowy owls are are very amazing and beautiful animals.