Claim:

A video authentically shows a snowy owl carrying chicks on its back.

Rating:

A video posted on social media in October 2024 reportedly showed the flight of a female snowy owl and her chicks.

An article on Topics shared the video and said: “A mother snowy owl flying with her children behind her…..” A YouTube An account with 1.7 million followers also shared the video.

A user on Threads reacted“Wow, I’ve never seen little chicks flying on their mother’s back in flight.” Indeed, this is likely because the video was a fake created using generative artificial intelligence.

The origin of the message seems coming from an Instagram account with 2.2 million followers called therenaturallovealthough the account holder has not responded to Snopes for confirmation. However, the account is full of videos and images clearly made with AI, including other short videos owl chicks riding their mothers back.

Some users thought the video was authentic, saying: “I didn’t know they put their babies on their backs to fly. Awesome.” However, THE The majority of comments on the Instagram account posited that the video was created with AI.

Wildlife photographer Tanja Brandt-Tierphotography commented on the post with a series of facepalms emojis and told Snopes: “Yes, that’s not true. I wonder why people couldn’t see.”

Another user said: “I consider this misinformation about nature that most people already don’t know enough about. Owls don’t carry their young in flight on their backs. They nest them.”

(Getty Images)

According to The Pilgrim Funda non-profit organization focused on preserving birds of prey, like owls:

Snowy owls nest on the ground, so it is much easier for the young to leave the nest because they do not need to fly to do so. They usually begin to leave the nest at around 3 to 4 weeks of age, but do not master the art of flight until they are around 8 weeks of age.

The parents will care for their young for about 4 months until the young owls are able to hunt and survive on their own. After two years, these young people will be old enough to find a partner, settle down and raise them on their own.

Additionally, snowy owl chicks are usually gray until around 2 months old, at which point they are ready to fly on their own, according to Owl Research Institute. A representative for the institute called the video “blatantly false” and directed Snopes to a resource illustrating stages of development of the snowy owl. They also stated that the team leader of Cornell Ornithology LaboratoryDenver Holt, snowy owl species manager, “has never observed or heard of snowy owls carrying young on their backs.”

Therefore, the color, size and behavior of the owls in the video in question are inconsistent with real snowy owls, confirming its origins as an AI-generated video.

Additionally, the video is tagged as AI on Instagram job, and AI-powered content detection platform Hive Moderation reported a 99.1% chance that the video in question is fake.

(Hive moderation)

Snopes debunked similar AI-generated animal videos, including one baby peacockA giant Maine coon catand a exceptionally large white rabbit.