Polar Animals: First Grade Research

From "Snowy Owls--Super Owls", by Claire Miller. Ranger Rick , Jan 99


What are Snowy Owls?

• Snowy owls are the heaviest, most powerful owls in all of North America.They can swoop down and grab their prey with the sharp talons on their feet. They'll even snatch ducks right out of a pond. {Picture}
  

Where do Snowy Owls live?

• Snowy Owls live in the coldest lands all around the top of the world, and they hunt in all kinds of weather. Their thick layers of feathers keep them warm, even when the temperature is 40 degrees below zero.

• Every year snowy owls visit some of the northern states. Wherever they fly to, they look for flat places with few trees. Farm fields and airports are great, and even beaches are good places for the owls to hunt

What do Snowy Owls eat?

• Snowy owls eat lemmings (mouse-like creatures) more than anything else. An owl can eat as many as 1,600 of them in one year. {Picture}
  

Snowy Owl Babies

• It's spring now, and the snowy owls have flown north to the frosty Arctic. That's when a snowy owl female lays as many as 12 eggs. But when there aren't many lemmings around, she may lay no eggs at all. {Picture}
  

• Once Mama Owl is on the nest, she doesn't hunt for food. The air is too cold to leave her eggs or chicks uncovered for very long. So her hard-working mate does all of the hunting for his family for at least two months (until the chicks leave the nest).