The snowy owl has been declared extinct in Sweden, marking the first time in 20 years that the country has officially lost a bird species, according to conservation organisations. Scientists say climate change might be driving the decline by disrupting the owl’s fragile Arctic ecosystem.
“Warmer winters bring more rain and less snow, destroying the snow tunnels that lemmings, their primary food source, rely on to survive,” explained BirdLife International.
One of the largest owl species in the world, the snowy owl inhabits cold regions across the Arctic, including Alaska, Canada, northern Russia and Scandinavia. Popular culture has helped make the snowy owl widely recognisable, most notably through the character Hedwig in the Harry Potter films.
In November, the Swedish Species Information Centre proposed classifying the snowy owl as “extinct” in Sweden in preliminary assessments for its 2025 Red List, after no nesting has been observed since 2015.
The centre is part of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) and officially updates the list every five years. The revised version is set to be published on March 2026.
According to a scientific study published in the journal Bird Conservation International in late 2024, the global population of snowy owls is estimated at 14,000 to 28,000 breeding adults.
Bird Conservation International notes that the species was labelled as vulnerable on the global Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in 2017, following an estimated 30% decline in the global population over the past ten years, or roughly three generations.
Although they are no longer seen in Sweden, snowy owls have not disappeared from Scandinavia, said Mikael Svensson, a biologist at the SLU Species Data Bank.
A return of lemmings could, over time, encourage the return of snowy owls, which can migrate irregularly over several thousand kilometres depending on prey availability.
(vib)