Modelling biodiversity is an essential part of its protection

Modelling biodiversity is an essential part of its protection Professor Guillaume Blanchet from Université de Sherbrooke considers why modelling biodiversity is an essential part of protection and how we can model biodiversity better. The snowy owl is one of the most charismatic animals in the world, maybe in part because of the immense success of Harry Potter, which has a snowy owl as a pet. Even if it is a well-known species and one that almost everyone has little to no trouble spotting in the sky if it flies (even high up) above our head, scientists are still finding it very challenging to draw on a map where it lives and reproduces. To show how much trouble even the best scientists in the world have in defining where the snowy owl is found, I present here two expert maps suggesting where the snowy owl may be found.