Mission: The Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma’s Grey Snow Eagle House strives to be the leader in eagle conservation. Through rehabilitation, education, research, and providing sanctuary to permanently injured eagles, we continue to preserve this culturally important species for future generations.
The Grey Snow Eagle House utilizes a full circle approach for its eagle conservation efforts. The facility gives long-term care to permanently injured bald and golden eagles, provides rehabilitation care to Oklahoma bald and golden eagles, offers on and offsite educational opportunities, and participates in nationwide research endeavors.
The Grey Snow Eagle House is permitted to take in injured bald and golden eagles from Oklahoma. The injured individuals are seen by a veterinarian and then provided care until their injuries have healed and can be released. To-date, the aviary has released 51 individuals back to the wild.
The facility is also permitted to take in bald and golden eagles from around the country that cannot be released back into the wild due to their injuries. The individuals have a high quality of life and are able to live out their lives in our enclosures. The Grey Snow Eagle House has had over 150 eagles come through its doors.
The eagle is held in high regards in many Native American cultures. For the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma members, these birds carry prayers to the Creator and therefore are the only living thing that has seen the Creator’s face. By providing care to eagles that are non-releasable, the tribe is giving back to the birds that have helped them for centuries. Iowa Tribal members can use the naturally molted feathers from the eagles at the Grey Snow Eagle House for their cultural needs.
To meet the Grey Snow Eagle House’s mission to educate the public about eagles, raptor conservation, and Native American culture, the aviary offers onsite tours and offsite educational programing.
The Grey Snow Eagle House participates in genetic and genomic research for bald and golden eagles. The focus of this research is to generate baseline data necessary for the development of realistic, data-driven conservation plans for these two species.
Published Manuscripts:
A 37K SNP Array for the Management and Conservation of Golden Eagles (Aquila chrysaetos). – Conservation Genetics.
A 50K SNP array reveals genetic structure for bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus). – Conservation Genetics.
A resource of genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphisms for the conservation and management of golden eagles. -Journal of Raptor Research.
Holarctic phylogeography of golden eagles and evaluation of alternative North American management approaches. -Biological Journal of the Linnean Society.