Short Ten Crow Killin'

[Richard Flanders]

Ravens are smart beyond comprehension. I have many stories of this from my years with my raven buddy "Poe" on the north slope of Alaska. I hand fed that big guy a lot of steak over the years and he knew me from others no matter how I dressed. Anyone wishing to read about ravens should find two books - Mind of the Raven, and Ravens in Winter - by Bernt Heinrich, a fellow who researched them. They make crows look like the 3-stooges as far as smarts go. They are indeed very efficient predators. In our bird research up north we looked for redpoll nests and found 42, all cleaned out by predators, which seemed to be ravens. They are good. I watched Poe take a ptarmigan away from a small falcon one day. He had lunch then dismantled it and stashed the pieces in 4 different places then later came back and restashed them when a herd of caribou started walking over the spots where he first stashed them. I could go on for hours with stories. They are indeed incredible birds. Here's a pic of Poe waiting for his lasagna breakfast...