When zoo keepers at the Zoo Osnabrück in Germany observed that the Snowy Owl mother was no longer incubating her three laid eggs, they took it out and placed it in an incubator.

By the time the owlets were hatched, they were hand-raised by the keepers.

“I had to feed them four times a day. They cried for attention and craned their beaks, demanding food. You can hear them before you see them,” said Andreas Wulftange, research associate, according to Zoo Borns.

Currently, the staff is teaching the owls to balance on logs and to be predatory birds. They are also starting to hop in their aviary.

“We want to enable the Snowy Owlets free flight and let them fly over the zoo grounds, so visitors can see how these special birds silently glide through the air and land with pinpoint accuracy,” Wulftange continued.

The three baby Snowy Owls will stay in the aviary until they have learned to fly and grown feathers.

The Snowy Owl (Bubo scandiacus) is a large white owl that is highly nomadic. Their movements depend on the location of their prey, which is lemmings and small rodents. The owls are currently classified as “Least Concern” on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, but they are facing threats from climate change that may affect both their habitat and their prey.