Imagine you
are walking down the World Bird Sanctuary Display Line and it is a quiet
weekday morning. You’re glancing
straight ahead, walking briskly, when a ‘Hello’ is echoed behind you. Craning your head sharply to the right,
no one is there. In fact, you
realize you’re utterly alone at that moment!
Another ‘Hello’ sounds, and you follow the call to its source
from a nearby enclosure. Beady
black eyes glare at you, glistening black tail feathers flex up and down, and a
long, thick, pointy beak gapes open again, “Hello.”
Poe, the
Common Raven, greets you with a tease.
Poe, WBS's Common Raven (photo: Gay Schroer)
Common
Ravens (Corvus corax) are highly intelligent members of the corvid family. They are described as having the brain
capacity of a 3-5 year-old child and can use tools to gather food and solve
puzzles. This cleverness also
allows them to outsmart or outmaneuver other birds. A pair of ravens will work together to steal from seabird
colonies. One raven will distract
a brooding adult on a nest and the other raven will make a grab for an egg or
small chick.
Common Raven (Corvus corax) (photo: wikipedia)
Ravens are
multifaceted characters in Native American culture. They may be revered as a cultural hero, creator, or a being
benevolent to humans. Another side
of the Raven is that of a trickster.
The raven will use his cunning and cleverness to obtain an object or
goal, either for self-seeking or selfless reasons.
One story
among the northwest tribes tells how raven reclaims the sun and moon hidden
away from the rest of the world.
Raven
Steals the Light
Once long
ago in ancient times, a mighty chief lived with his beautiful daughter. He took the sun and the moon from the
sky and hung them in his house, leaving the rest of the world shrouded in
darkness.
With the
darkness, the people of the earth could not hunt or fish. They had to crawl through the forest,
with their hands as their guide, to hope to find wood to light the fires in
their homes. If they thought they
had found firewood they would bite it to make certain indeed.
When
Raven discovered the mighty chief had taken the sun and moon from the earth, he
flew to the chief’s house to reclaim what had been stolen. Raven asked the powerful chief to
restore the sun and moon to its rightful place, but the chief refused. Not the least bit discouraged, the
clever black bird devised a devious plan.
He
followed the chief’s beautiful daughter to a nearby stream which she visited every day. There, Raven waited and hid until her return the next day. As she approached the stream, Raven
transformed himself into a tiny fish and leaped into the water. The beautiful daughter filled her
bucket and then dipped her drinking cup into the cool water. In the form of a tiny fish, Raven swam
into the cup and the girl drank the water and Raven unknowingly.
The girl
became pregnant after Raven entered her body and transformed into a baby. Time passed and the girl gave birth to
a boy, who was in fact Raven. The
baby grew healthy and fast and soon was a young boy. The mighty chief loved his grandson greatly and would spoil
him. One day his grandson began
crying for something.
The chief
asked his grandson what he wanted in order to make him happy. The boy gestured to the sun and moon
hanging from the ceiling of their home.
Reluctant at first, the grandfather relented and gave the boy the sun
and moon if he would stop crying.
The child took them outside to play with for a time, whereupon he suddenly threw them high
into the sky. The mighty chief
rushed outside of his house to see what had happened, but Raven had already
returned to his true form and flew far away.
That is
how Raven returned light to the world.
If you would
like to learn more about the intelligence of Ravens and Crows, come to the
World Bird Sanctuary and speak with one of our naturalists or visit Poe, the
Common Raven, who lives on
the Sanctuary’s Display Line.
As with all of the creatures that call the World Bird Sanctuary home, Poe is available for adoption in our Adopt A Bird program. Click Here to adopt Poe, or call 636-861-3225 and ask for Marion to find out more about our Adopt A Bird Program.
Submitted by Jessica Bunke, World Bird Sanctuary Naturalist/Trainer
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