A study led by a Hawk Mountain Sanctuary researcher has found that the snowy owl population is much less than thought.

The publication, “Status assessment and conservation priorities for a circumpolar raptor: the Snowy Owl Bubo scandiacus” reports that the numbers have decreased by 30% over the past several decades.

“These types of studies are helpful at filling in knowledge gaps and allow us to get a better grasp on how populations are doing in the wild,” said Hawk Mountain research biologist Dr. Rebecca McCabe. “The more we know and understand about a species, the better we can be at conserving and protecting them.”

McCabe worked with 38 researchers from around the globe on the intensive study.

Co-authors hail from the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Norway and Russia, McCabe noted.

The study was published in the peer-reviewed journal, “Bird Conservation International” and its completion makes it the first assessment of its kind on the snowy owl.

Also known as the polar owl, the white owl and the Arctic owl, the snowy owl is difficult to access due to its nomadic nature and ability to travel more than 2,500 miles in spring for a suitable nesting spot. Researchers compared and compiled long-term breeding data, genetic studies, satellite/GPS tracking and survival estimates from several long-term monitoring sites across the Arctic for the study.

According to McCabe, the snowy owl has been listed as “vulnerable” on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species since 2017. The vulnerable status means a species is at a high risk of extinction.

“Our work, which estimated population trends at five long-term monitoring sites in the Arctic, suggests snowy owl breeding populations have decreased by more than 30% over the past three generations. These findings simply support the IUCN’s classification of ‘vulnerable,’ ” McCabe said.

The results estimate the current global population of snowy owls to be somewhere between 14,000 and 28,000 breeding adults. The numbers justify the IUCN’s uplisting but also show that snowy owl populations are considerably lower than previous estimates, she said.

McCabe noted that because it was an assessment, much of it involved compiling a review of what is already known about the snowy owl.

“Our major contribution was using the long-term breeding data to examine population trends, which unfortunately are showing declines at a handful of monitoring sites in the circumpolar Arctic,” McCabe said.

McCabe, a Lancaster native who spent time in Canada to study the winter ecology of snowy owls while pursuing her doctorate, commended the team effort.

“Although this is a great achievement for Hawk Mountain, the most exciting thing for me is to see all these people coming together for the greater good of snowy owls,” she said. “Collaboration among the science community is so important, and this assessment truly demonstrates that.

“We can only do so much on an individual level, so it is important to make those connections and work with people who share a common goal. Above all, my hope is that the work we’ve done here will benefit snowy owl conservation efforts, and I know that sentiment is shared among everyone who worked on this.”

The full assessment is available at www.hawkmountain.org/download/?id=8875.