Live Bait, Owls & The “Money Shot” Part Two of Three

While replaying a cellphone video clip of the owl baiting taken in Alberta in my mind, I wondered if this problem was unique to the Great Grey Owl, our largest owl species or if many owl species were potential victims of human interference during their natural lives. With the efforts of two young researchers, an exploration of the extent of owl baiting was the next stage of exploring this problem.
Looking east to Saskatchewan, using live mice to bait snowy owls has become a concern of the Nature Conservancy of Canada. Ms. Sarah Bradley with the conservancy, notes that social media platforms enable people to share photos and locations of snowy owls, which in turn increases the practice of using live bait to get the snowy owls a little closer to the photographer. Quoted in a CBC article written by Henia Ould-Hammou, Sarah states “This is something that is happening not just in our province, but also across the country and anywhere the snowy owls are wintering”. With snowy owls recently designated as a threatened species by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC), due to a population decline of 40% over the last 24 years, human interference in the lives of snowy owls is a growing concern of which baiting is a part.
Award winning aerial photographer, Mr. Steve Troletti, expressed concern for snowy owls in southern Quebec in his post published in 2013. He recalls that the snowy owl, Quebec’s official bird, arrives in southern Quebec in late November, hungry and exhausted. The post is dedicated to a snowy owl that died from exhaustion and hypothermia, after being chased by a photographer driving his SUV across fields in pursuit of the owl.
The Ottawa valley area has been the scene of conflict between “purist birders” and “the baiters.” In a 2017 Ottawa Sun column, written by Tom Spears, he states that foul language and shouting matches have occurred between the two groups. Spears recognizes that with digital camera technology, the use of Facebook, GPS and cellphones, help crowds converge on desired birds. Mike Runtz, a retired Carleton University biologist, renowned naturalist and birder, says that Snowy Owls and Great Grey Owls, are tolerant of humans, Since the owls tend to stay in one area “this makes them prone to being harassed by photographers.” Ontario’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry states it is legal to use store bought mice for baiting, as long as the owl is not “killed, injured, captured or harassed as a result.” Members of Ontario’s Project SNOWstorm, a snowy owl monitoring non-profit organization are tracking baiting reports this birding year, starting in November of 2025.
These are some examples of what has occurred in Canada. Evidence indicates that this is not only a provincial problem, but truly a national problem. In 2015, Mr. Troletti reported that a girl,age 7, was injured by a barred owl he had observed being baited by a photographer in Iles-de-Boucherville National Park It’s clear the conflict is multi-level. Pure birders are in conflict with owl baiters. Owls’ lives are put in danger, flying out to parked cars along roadsides and consuming raised mice that may transmit disease, such as salmonella.. Join us in the next column which explores current law, the contacts we’ve made with politicians and government employees regarding owl baiting and the results of our efforts to date.