Actual Video of Snowy Owl Carrying Chicks on Her Again?

A video posted to social media in October 2024 allegedly depicted the flight of a feminine snowy owl and her chicks. 

A publish on Threads shared the video and mentioned, “A snowy Owl mom flying along with her children at her again….😊.” A YouTube account with 1.7 million subscribers additionally shared the video.

One person on Threads reacted, “Wow by no means have seen Little chicks flying on the again of their mom in flight.” Certainly, that’s possible as a result of the video was a faux created utilizing generative synthetic intelligence. 

The origin of the publish appears to stem from an Instagram account with 2.2 million followers referred to as therealnaturelove, although the account holder has not responded to Snopes for affirmation. Nonetheless, the account is filled with movies and pictures which might be clearly made with AI, together with other short videos of owl chicks driving on their moms’ backs. 

There have been some customers who believed the video was genuine, saying, “By no means knew they put their infants on their again to fly. Superior.” Nonetheless, the majority of feedback on the Instagram account posited that the video was created with AI.

Wildlife photographer Tanja Brandt-Tierfotografie commented on the publish with a collection of facepalm emojis and advised Snopes, “Sure, it is faux. I’m questioning why folks couldn’t see.”

One other person mentioned, “I see this as misinformation about nature that most individuals already do not know sufficient about. Owls do not carry their younger in flight on their backs. They nest them.” 

(Getty Photographs)

In response to The Peregrine Fund, a nonprofit group centered on the preservation of birds of prey, like owls:

Snowy Owls nest on the bottom, so it’s a lot simpler for the younger to depart the nest as a result of they do not need to fly to take action. They normally begin leaving the nest at 3-4 weeks, however don’t grasp the artwork of flying till they’re about 8 weeks previous.

The mother and father will care for his or her younger for about 4 months till the younger owls are in a position to hunt and survive on their very own. After two years, these younger can be sufficiently old to discover a mate, calm down and lift younger on their very own.

Moreover, snowy owl chicks are usually grey till they attain about 2 months previous, at which era they’re able to be flying on their very own, based on the Owl Research Institute. A consultant of  the institute referred to as the video “clearly faux” and pointed Snopes to a useful resource depicting the stages of snowy owl development. Additionally they mentioned that the staff chief of Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology‘s snowy owl species account, Denver Holt, “has by no means noticed or heard of snowy owls that carry younger on their again.”

Due to this fact, the colour, measurement and habits of the owls within the video in query are inconsistent with actual snowy owls, supporting its origins as an AI-generated video. 

Additional, the video is labeled as AI on the Instagram publish, and the AI-generated content material detection platform Hive Moderation reported a 99.1% probability that the video in query was a faux. 

(Hive Moderation)

Snopes has debunked comparable AI-generated movies of animals, together with a baby peacock, a giant Maine coon cat, and an exceptionally large white rabbit.