AyyYyyyy, a science project that I absolutely love! :D

(Sorry it's upside down, I don't have time to flip it)

Basically we had to create a species using certain adaptations for different things we got, such as habitat (Mountains), climate (sub-zero temperatures), water availability (drought most of the year, some rainfall), diet (berries, leafy plants and small animals), and predators (large rat-like mammals that chase down their prey in packs)

So using adaptations that already exist in animals today, we could create an animal to fit the guidelines.  Obviously, with the second two especially, I was thinking the Antarctic, and started using animals from Antarctica and the Arctic as a guide.

You can probably guess which animal influenced my design the most. ;>

But besides the snowy owl, I incorporated some snow leopard-ish traits like an elongated tail and ears, and the whole muzzle thing came from the diet, since I could either put teeth on a beak or just switch to a more common omnivore mouth.

So basically we're left with a bird that can fly between mountains/glaciers, has a super thick layer of downy fur-like feathers to protect against the temperature, keen hearing and sight, curved claws to scoop up fish(also where it gets most of it's fresh water from), a long feathered tail for balance in flight and climbing, a muzzle for both meat and plant food, and of course, quick wings to escape any sort of ambush from the predators.

...as you can tell, I'm pretty obsessed with this so far. :D I might try to get some white faux fur and sew a model or something.

Oh, and have a little rope thing I made to get my cat used to the sensation of a collar: