TOWER RAVENS BULLETIN
Welcome new arrivals at the Tower of London... and a spooky tale from the Ravenmaster
Following the death in March 2018 of Munin, 23, the oldest and longest-serving raven at the Tower of London [FT367:1011], breeding pair Huginn and Muninn (both aged 13) arrived at the end of 2018. Now four raven chicks have been born at the Tower for the first time in 30 years. They began hatching on St George’s Day. Ravenmaster Yeoman Warder Chris Skaife said he felt “like a proud father”. Since the birds began hatching on 23 April, they have quadrupled in size from about 3in (8cm) to more than a foot (30cm) in height, having been fed on a diet of quail, mice and rats. Their iridescent black plumage is starting to come through, although their pink beaks will not turn black for about a year. One of the chicks is set to remain at the Tower and will be called either George or Georgina because of the date the hatching began. The first and last raven to be hatched and live at the Tower was named Ronald Raven following a Blue Peter competition in 1989.
Ravens were once common in Britain, but after being decimated by Victorian gamekeepers there are only 7,400 protected breeding pairs left. The Tower usually has seven at any time – currently Erin, Jubilee, Harris, Poppy, Gripp, Rocky and Merlina. All the birds have had their wings clipped to stop them flying off, apart from Poppy, which replaced the old Munin. The new raven chicks will not have their wings clipped, but will be trained not to go AWOL by raven whisperer Mike Keen, who has owned his own raven Grippe, now 14 months old, since she was a chick. She spends most of her time on his shoulders and flies feely around the beer garden at his pub The Boot in Freston, Suffolk. The chance to train the hatchlings came after Ravenmaster Skaife met Grippe and was impressed by her calm nature.
According to a legend allegedly dating back to Charles II in the 17th century, if raven numbers dip below six, both the fortress and the kingdom will fall. While Ravenmaster Skaife claims that one account describes how ravens were seen gazing on the scene when Queen Anne Boleyn was beheaded in 1536, in sober fact the earliest mention of ravens living at the Tower is in the RSPCA journal The Animal World in 1895 and – according to Dr Boria Sax, author of City of Ravens – the legend only gained widespread traction during the Blitz. At one point during WWII, only one raven was left at the Tower, prompting Churchill to order that the quota of six birds be restored. As it’s impossible to prove a negative, the legend will live on. Eve. Standard, 19 Sept; D.Telegraph, 20 Sept; D.Mail, 3 Oct 2018; BBC News, D.Mail, 17 May; D.Telegraph, D.Mail, 30 May 2019.
• Ravenmaster Skaife relates the following story: “One evening, I was shepherding the ravens to bed when I noticed a small girl sitting on the bench by their enclosure, watching me closely. Aged about 10, she had mouseybrown hair and was wearing modern clothes. Since the Tower
was shut, she wasn’t likely to be some stranded visitor and I didn’t recognise her as one of the residents’ children. I’ve often felt a bit uncomfortable in this part of the Tower, but I try not to dwell on that fact. Unsure what to say, I asked politely if she could move, because the ravens would be unwilling to enter the enclosure if she didn’t. She looked up at me and smiled slightly, but said nothing. Anyway, I thought I’d deal with the ravens first, so I unlocked Munin and Jubilee’s enclosure, which takes just a moment. When I turned back, the girl had disappeared. It would have been impossible for her to have walked past me without my noticing, but she was gone. Vanished. I was so unnerved I went to look for her, searching the entire Inner Ward, an area enclosed by a massive wall and 13 towers. I found nothing, and to this day, no one knows anything about that little girl.” [From Ravenmaster: My Life With The Ravens At The Tower Of London by Christopher Skaife, Fourth Estate, 2018.]
For more on the Tower Ravens, see Jeffrey Vallance, “The Ravens of London”, FT206:30-36.