Out There

The snowy owl’s large body and thick plumage prevent heat loss, making it the most cold tolerant of Canadian birds

SCIENTIFIC NAME Bubo scandiacus REGION Nests throughout the Arctic; winters across southern Canada CONSERVATION STATUS Vulnerable WHY SO SPECIAL? The most cold tolerant of Canadian birds

COOL FACTS

The snowy owl’s large body mass and thick winter plumage prevent heat loss better than any other bird (except Antarctic’s Adélie penguins), which explains why Canada’s Prairies, where winter temperatures can drop to -30 C for weeks at a time, are the “milder” southern home to snowy owls. Back in the 1970s, James Gessaman, a biologist at Utah State University, believed that snowy owls could survive much lower ambient temperatures, well below any recorded in the Northern Hemisphere (the coldest temperature ever recorded in Canada is -63 C in Snag, Yukon). To prove his point, he undertook an experiment that exposed a snowy owl to increasingly colder temperatures. He first dropped the temperature to -55 C for three hours. When that proved tolerable to the owl, Gessaman turned the thermostat down to -77 C. No effects. That was followed by five hours at -93 C. Amazingly, the snowy owl survived these lethal temperatures with no ill effects.