Arctic owls disappearing
Published 5:00 am Thursday, February 19, 2026
An icon of the Arctic is in trouble in Canada.
The population of Snowy Owls in Canada has been dwindling for some years now, according to the best data available.
In 2025, the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) assessed the status of one bird species, the snowy owl.
“This iconic and culturally important Arctic owl is for the first time nationally assessed as Threatened, based primarily on Christmas Bird Count (CBC) data across the southern part of its North American range, which shows a 42.6 per cent rate of decline over the last three generations (24 years),” the organization writes in a report issued this month. “These range-wide data show a decline greater than 30 per cent, the threshold for an assessment of Threatened.”
The organization stated that the species continues to be listed as “Vulnerable” as a result, and was recently declared extinct as a breeding bird in Sweden.
Indigenous knowledge from two northern Canadian regions (Baffin Island and the Yukon coast) also reports that the owl “is less frequently encountered than it used to be, likely due to warming climate conditions,” according to the report. “Other threats in Canada include highly pathogenic avian influenza, poisoning with anticoagulant rodenticides, collisions, and electrocution.”
Cameron Eckert, the president of Whitehorse’s birding club and a professional biologist, said “snowy owls inhabit a remote and wild Arctic landscape—one that is rapidly transforming under a warming climate.”
“Multiple components of the owl’s ecosystem are shifting, including the shrubification of tundra habitats, potential disruption of prey populations, and increasingly unstable and unpredictable sea-ice conditions.”
Eckert added, “Any one of these factors—or more likely their combined influence—may be affecting Snowy Owl populations. As Arctic species serve as important indicators of ecosystem health, such changes are deeply concerning.”
