Why Is The Snowy Owl Important?

The eye catching Snowy Owl has thrived in the Arctic Tundras of North America for a millennia, even showing up in ancient cave paintings in Europe (AllAboutBirds). What’s kept the Owl around for so long is its bright white color that it has adapted, and helps the owl blend into snowy plains and protects itself from its predators, foxes and wolves, and also help it prey on lemming, arctic hares, and voles (ABCBirds). Unfortunately, the Snowy Owl's conservation status is vulnerable, according to EOL. This means that the Snowy Owl is close to being endangered, and eventually extinct. It’s important to save the Snowy Owl from becoming endangered because the Snowy Owls population has drastically declined by 64% since 1970 (ORI) and the current population size of the Snowy Owl is astonishingly lower than 500,000 (CNN). The Snowy Owls are popular birds that help balance their ecosystem as level 3 tertiary consumers.  

Why The Snowy Owl Is Becoming Endangered

Because Snowy Owls are consumers and heterotrophs, they rely on their prey to survive. The main food source of Snowy Owls are Lemmings, which are vital to the diet of Snowy Owls. If the Lemming population decreases, which it is, it would serve as a limiting factor for Snowy Owls because it affects the food availability. According to Smithsonian, Lemming are “rodents that stay active all winter long, eating moss when there are no green leaves available. Everything has to be just right for them to flourish. When lemmings are plentiful, the creatures who eat them flourish. When lemmings disappear, their predators’ numbers also shrink, allowing lemming numbers to climb. Once there are more lemmings on the ground again, snowy owl populations rise accordingly." With a decline in populations of Lemming, there is the subsequent decline in population of Snowy Owls.

Why Lemming Populations Are Decreasing  

Climate change is indirectly the cause of the decline in Snowy Owls. This is because as stated before, Lemmings need a “just right” environment for them to thrive. As global warming ensues and temperatures rise because of humans, Lemmings have lost their ideal environment more and more over the years to the point where it begins to affect their predators’ population as well. If there are warmer temperatures in the Tundras, this could also be a sign of Snowy Owls becoming impacted by ecological succession by habitat changes. 

How To Help The Snowy Owl

By signing this petition you are part of the movement to save the Snowy Owl species and help them survive for the next generation to see!