We’re saved! Ravens born at the Tower for first time in 30 years
THE joy was evident on the Queen’s face when she met her newest great-grandchild for the first time last week.
But if tradition is to be believed, she may have felt just as delighted with four other arrivals a fortnight earlier.
Amid considerably less fanfare than Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor’s birth, raven chicks hatched at the Tower of London for the first time in 30 years.
The new generation of birds ensures a legend that claims the Tower will crumble and the kingdom will fall if they leave will not be fulfilled – at least for now.
The chicks were born to parents Huginn and Muninn on St George’s Day, April 23 – 13 days before Archie became the seventh in line to the throne.
Yeoman Warder Chris Skaife, the Ravenmaster at the Tower, described himself as ‘absolutely thrilled’.
He added: ‘It was quite unexpected. My suspicions were piqued when the parents built a huge nest overnight and almost immediately the female started to sit on it.
‘Then on April 23 I noticed the birds going to the nest with food. However, it has only been this week that I’ve been able to get up close and see for myself that they have four healthy chicks as I hadn’t wanted to disturb them.’
The pair, who are both 13, arrived at the Tower last year.
They have been feeding their brood every two hours. Dad Huginn collects a diet of quail, mice and rats provided by the Ravenmaster, and hands it over to mum Muninn in the nest. The chicks have quadrupled in size from 3in tall when they hatched to 12in.
Their iridescent black plumage is starting to come through, although their pink beaks will not turn black for about a year. Huginn and Muninn were provided by a breeder to join seven other ravens already at the tower, including Harris, Gripp, Jubilee, Rocky, Erin, Poppy and Merlina.
One of the chicks will be kept and named George or Georgina in honour of the saints day they were born on. The others will go to specialist breeders. The year when ravens began their association with the Tower is long forgotten, but their presence is protected by the legend that binds them to the kingdom’s wellbeing. Charles II decreed there must always be at least six to avoid disaster.
They are pampered and live for decades, compared with up to 15 years in the wild.
The Ravenmaster feeds them raw meat and eggs, as well as the occasional rabbit.