Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Ravens Are Smart

I approve!

Hehehe. Too Freaking Funny

A variety of tests suggest they are among the brightest.

Some ravens used to come and observe on a high lead logging job in my youth. Eventually they became fairly tame and did comical raven aerobatics at lunchtime....and of course we rewarded the airshow with leftovers.
One day I had left my rucksack with water and lunch on a prominent stump, and one of the ravens had worked it's way under the flap while the other acted as sentinel. The raven didn't do too much damage, leaving the bologna and cheese for a can of sardines which it seemed fascinated with. It pecked and scratched for awhile, then took flight with the little can to a raven approved altitude and dropped it on the rocks below. Then down to examine the can, and repeat several times, I assume, hoping the can would burst. So at lunchtime I went down and retrieved the can and opened it on a nearby stump. They cleaned it up in short time, but quarreling the whole time. I'll never know, but I wondered if it was the odor of the can, the picture of the sardines, or just a bright shiny toy...which they seem to love. They will play with a ball of aluminum foil for hours.

Not trying to take away from Ravens smarts, but when we were kids, house we used to walk by had a crow in big cage, but it was inside a stockade fence, that crow would talk all day, we thought it was a man talking to us , but we could look through knot holes and talk to crow, amazing what he would say back to us kids, funny!

Crows are probably raven-smart. Corvids both.

Ravens are known to problem solve and use tools. That like chîmp smart.

Two raven interactions. We have two pairs that have been on this property since we bought it. I'm still mad at one for taking a 1/2" Snap On socket when I was working on a car in front of our shop. Went in the house and came out just as he picked up the socket and flew off.

Soon after we purchased the property I was using a D6 Cat to bust out some old, huge pine stumps. These were from the 40s and 50s. The ravens would circle over and wait until I started pushing on the stump and would pick off the mice that ran out. One would pick off a mouse and head to the nest on BLM property. The other would kill 3 or 4 mice and then take all of them at once.

Now, when we have Costco chicken carcasses or other meat left over I take it to the lower shop. Within a minute the ravens are circling overhead. They do get a bit miffed if I show up at the lower shop without food - and they let me know it.

They are hell on turkey eggs and chicks.

Crows are not the problem solvers ravens are. And neither apparently is as good as a NZ parrot.

In Kotzebue one day i saw a pair of ravens mating. He jumped off, she fluffed her feathers and flew off, two other ravens came over and beat the crap out of first male raven.

Probably their sister or mom....

We watched a group of them a few years back playing in the snow like kids. They'd fly up the slope and slide back down on their bellies or upside down on their backs. The ones at the deer lease keep a close eye on the gutpile by camp and will double team and fight the caracaras and buzzards.

"Quoth the Raven, 'Nevermore.'" With apologies to Mr. Poe.

L.W

ironbender;
Good evening my friend, I trust all is well as can be with you and your fine family tonight.

Thanks for the video and for those who've added raven stories, it's interesting to me.

We were sitting waiting for BC Ferries to take us to what was then known as The Queen Charlottes, now Haida Gwaii, in the parking lot at Prince Rupert.

Suddenly out of the blue there was a loud bang as a shell fish of some kind hit the vehicle beside us, which happened to be empty as the owner must have gone to get a coffee.

Anyways the raven who dropped it subsequently picked it up forthwith, took it aloft again and this time dropped it onto the pavement, where it broke open. It landed, picked out the contents and flew away.

We still talk about that day and how we were glad it didn't drop it on our Toyota pickup, although it wasn't in perfect shape anymore, but still didn't need extra dents either.

Thanks again and all the best.

Dwayne

“Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door —
Only this, and nothing more."

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow; — vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow — sorrow for the lost Lenore —
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore —
Nameless here for evermore.

And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain
Thrilled me — filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;
So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating,
Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door —
Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door; —
This it is, and nothing more."

Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,
Sir," said I, "or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore;
But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping,
And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door,
That I scarce was sure I heard you"— here I opened wide the door; —
Darkness there, and nothing more.

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortals ever dared to dream before;
But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token,
And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, "Lenore?"
This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, "Lenore!" —
Merely this, and nothing more.

Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning,
Soon again I heard a tapping somewhat louder than before.
Surely," said I, "surely that is something at my window lattice:
Let me see, then, what thereat is, and this mystery explore —
Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore; —
'Tis the wind and nothing more."

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.

Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore.
Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou," I said, "art sure no craven,
Ghastly grim and ancient raven wandering from the Nightly shore —
Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!"
Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."

Much I marveled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly,
Though its answer little meaning— little relevancy bore;
For we cannot help agreeing that no living human being
Ever yet was blest with seeing bird above his chamber door —
Bird or beast upon the sculptured bust above his chamber door,
With such name as "Nevermore.”

I was elk hunting in Colorado and one morning, just after sunrise, I was overlooking a narrow valley. I heard a loud ruckus to my left, up the valley. It was about 25 or 30 ravens and they were riding the wind, coasting down the valley. I watched them until they were out of sight. About 20 minutes later they came flying up the valley, fighting the wind all the way.

A little while after they were out of sight I heard them again and down the valley they came, squawking and croaking all the way down the valley. They did that two more times that morning and just left me shaking my head. I almost felt like taking a couple of pot shots at them to run them off.

Might be smart, but cant make it to the Super Bowl.

I had three crows and two ravens as pets from 1964 through 1976. The crows were in upstate NY and the ravens in Tucson. Will say the crows were not as wild more easily tamed. The two white necked ravens were better flyers. Both species would get into everything you owned if they could. One time one raven was accidentally left in the house. There was an open tool box. Every piece that the bird could lift was hidden all over the house! He tucked many items in folds of cloth like blankets on bed or into the couches and chairs where the cushions met the backrest. A deck of cards had every card thrown. I put jesses on the ravens so I could perch them on a crate in my 240z. They loved going on fast rides and being flown in various parts of the desert. Sometimes I would take them to Gates Pass and let them loose. They would soar on the winds. A few times they flew to catback mountain and back. Watched them outmaneuver a falcon while there. As I reflect on those days I think it might have not been in the best interests for wild birds, but they were exciting intelligent pets.

Great story. Thanks for posting that.

I sat on a high mountain ridge one late AM glossing for deer in the lower ridges and draws below one morning near Cloudcroft.

The wind was blowing up the ridge pretty stiff and the Ravens and similar sized hawks were holding in the air currents above me and actually seemed to be playing together a bit as they were held aloft by the updraft coming up the mountains east of the White Sands Range and Alamogordo while doing their acrobatics.

I wish I'd have had a cell phone with camera to record that hack then. Doubt I'll ever see anything like that again.

I feed a few big males every day.
They are so tame.

I feed the meat scraps.
I think their favorite is roasted chicken leftovers..🤣

Going down Oregon's Santiam Pass and a raven dropped out of the sky and rode the bow wave above the cab of a log truck ahead of me for about 10 miles down the west side. Barely moved a wing the whole distance.