Story By: Gheorghi Caraseni, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News 

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT

Video Credit: CEN/@zkomi

This is the moment a huge snowy owl devours a pigeon in front of stunned onlookers in the middle of a city centre.

The incident was filmed in the urban locality of Nizhniy Odes in the town of Sosnogorsk in the north-western Russian republic of Komi and was shared on social media where it has been viewed 85,000 times.

In the footage, the large snowy owl (Bubo scandiacus) is seen with the pigeon in its strong talons as it nibbles at the bird’s insides in the icy town centre.

Meanwhile, the hungry owl appears to be nonplussed about a small group of onlookers who stopped to watch the bird feasting on the helpless pigeon.

The feet of several passersby carrying bags are seen several feet from the large black and white owl.

Snowy owls are a large, white bird of the true owl family that are native to the Arctic regions of North America and Eurasia.

Males are mostly all white while females have flecks of black plumage. The snowy owl primarily feasts on lemmings and other small rodents for food during the breeding season.

They are opportunistic hunters and their choice of prey may vary, especially in winter times.

The ViralTab page is created by and dedicated to professional, independent freelance journalists. It is a place for us to showcase our work. When our news is sold to our media partners, we will include the link here.