Specimen of a male snowy owl in the collection of the German Oceanographic Museum

A Brief History of Hedwig and Horst

Snowy owls love – as the name suggests – the snow and occur mainly in Arctic regions. These close relatives of domestic owls prefer the northern latitudes as breeding sites. The completely snow-white male has adapted perfectly to this habitat. On the larger females you can see the numerous dark flecks and bands in their bright plumage.

Although they are at home in northern regions, wild Snowy owls can be observed especially in the harsh winter months in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, when they come here in search of food. In the course of the last century about 20 such occurrences were registered, most recently in 1999 at the Port of Rostock.

Also part of the bird show at the MEERESMUSEUM is a female animal, who has been capturing attention for over 30 years. Now the "old" Snowy Owl has a partner. Since 2008, a handsome male has enriched the Museum's bird collection. While the elderly female owl was still nameless at the time, the newcomer was given the name "Horst" by the curator in charge of him. The name matched the owl name "Hedwig", which was fashionable at the time from the Harry Potter novels, well, but this was intended more as a recognition of the former curator, Horst Schröder. Whether "Horst" and "Hedwig" will ever meet in the museum is uncertain.