WHO’S A CLEVER BIRDIE?
the birds and they are fed on six ounces of raw meat a day as well as bird biscuits soaked in blood. Their good treatment clearly serves them well, one Tower raven lived to the ripe old age of 44, far older than it would ever reach in the wild.
Today, there are seven birds in the Tower – the required six plus a spare – and they all have one wing clipped to stop them flying away.
That is not to say they do not sometimes go on excursions or misbehave.
One recently made it all the way along the Thames to Greenwich until it was caught five days later by a member of the public and returned to the Tower.
Another was sacked as a Tower raven for eating television aerials.
Ravens in captivity have learned to talk better than some parrots. They have also been known to copy other noises including animal and bird calls.
Ingeniously, if they come across a carcass they cannot open they have been known to imitate wolves or foxes to attract them to the site. When the larger animals have used their powerful jaws to chew through the carrion and had their fill, the birds swoop in.
American 19th-century poet and horror-story writer Edgar Allen Poe’s poem The Raven is probably the best-known allusion to the bird with its famous refrain: “Quoth the Raven: ‘Nevermore.’”
The poem follows an unnamed narrator alone at night who is visited by a raven. It is in the seventh stanza that the bird and the narrator first come face to face: “Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter, In there stepped a stately raven of the saintly days of yore; Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he; But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door – Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door – Perched, and sat, and nothing more.”
Ravens have a long history in mythology. The ancient Norse god Odin had two – Huginn (the old Norse for “thought”) and Muninn (“memory”) – who flew all over the world and brought news back to their master. Odin was not only king of the gods but a god of war and death and is sometimes referred to as “the raven god”.
The birds also have an important place in Celtic folklore. One Scottish legend tells of an evil harridan called Cailleach who took the form of a number of birds including the raven and feasted on men’s bodies.
In Welsh folklore Bran the Blessed (Bran is the Welsh for raven) was a giant who ruled Britain. After being mortally wounded in battle he ordered for his head to be cut off after which it continued to speak words of prophesy.
King Arthur was another figure associated with ravens. In Cornwall it was believed that he did not die but instead turned into a raven.
Morrighan, the Irish goddess of war, was also thought to take the form of a raven while hovering over the battlefield.
The widely-held association of ravens with war and death is thought to stem from their frequent presence on battlefields to which, being scavengers, they were naturally attracted.
In Chinese mythology ravens were thought to cause bad weather in forests to warn people when the gods were about to pass by.
In parts of South America some tribes went one further and worshipped the birds themselves as deities. Despite their dark associations ravens are actually playful birds. In Canada they have even been observed sliding down icy roofs just for the fun of it. They have also been observed making toys out of sticks, pine cones, rocks and golf balls.
It is unusual for animals to engage in playful activities such as this purely for the fun of it, another sign that they are more highly evolved than many other creatures.