### p7 raven mating and childrearing habits > Ravens mate for life, and that life could be as long as fifty years. Although when a raven's mate dies, it will take another mate. Mating, however, is reserved for the few who are able to obtain a territory and become a nesting, resident pair. The size of raven territories varies according to the abundance of food. Heinrich argues that unmated ravens flock together in order to compete for food with nesting pairs, who vigorously defend their territory (1989). Large, swirling flocks of ravens and groups of roosting ravens are comprised of those who do not have a territory and cannot nest. One half of raven young do not survive their first year (Heinrich 1999, 74). A raven nest is often refurbished and used by successive pairs of ravens. Ravens generally build their large stick nests on cliff faces or in conifers where it is easier to defend themselves from predators, and they can also build their nests on telephone poles and high-tension power-line towers. The soft inner nest cup is lined with animal fur, shredded bark, wool, or other suitable material. ### p9 ravens have a symbiotic relationship with large carnivorous hunters > Ravens and humans have partnered since the earliest times. As Heinrich states, "There is something unique about ravens that permits or encourages an uncanny closeness to develop with humans" (1999, 31). Those who have gained a raven's trust experience the raven as a partner or child, not as a pet. The raven may have originally been attracted to human hunters as it was to other large carnivores—wolves, coyotes, bears—because the raven's beak, which it uses with great ingenuity, has a curved tip at the end of the upper mandible that makes it impossible for the raven to pierce even the skin of a gray squirrel (Boarman and Heinrich 1999). The raven needs a carnivore with teeth, claws, or tools strong enough to open large mammals and provide the raven with meat. In return, it appears that the raven, whose aerial viewpoint allows it to see large mammals that would not be easy for the land-bound to spot, may have learned to signal animal and human hunters where to find their prey. ### p9-10 ravens are effective scouts for hunters > wildlife biologist R. D. Lawrence reports observing ravens that appeared "to act as scouts by congregating near prey animals" and "calling loudly and excitedly" (1986, 193). Scottish hunters associate a raven croaking with a successful hunt. > > coyotes also benefit from the raven's ability to find food. In winter, a hungry coyote has difficulty foraging for food because its paws get tender from walking in deep snow, and it moves toward the squawking and circling of excited ravens who have found a carcass to feed on during winter (Ryden 1979, 80). Coyotes also dig up food cached by ravens (Heinrich 1989, 120). Human hunter-gatherers, who survived in part on meat they scavenged from dead animal carcasses, may also have used the raven to help find meat. In return, these early humans, like other large carnivores, would have been able to tear open the carcass so the ravens could also feed. ### p10-11 ravens have a strong, uniquely instinctive bond with wolves > It is likely that the first large carnivore with which the raven partnered was the wolf, not the human hunter. Ravens and wolves are very comfortable in the presence of one another. This comfortable interspecies interaction develops even when wolves have been raised in captivity and have not had prior experience with ravens. > > The comfort that ravens and wolves exhibit with one another appears not to exist in any of the partnerships the raven has with other large carnivores. The presence of wolves may protect the raven from challenges from other birds and predators ( ### p14 mass death changed the human view of ravens > The association of the raven with death was reinforced by the raven's feeding on human corpses. Battlefields strewn with corpses that could not be easily removed for burial attracted ravens and other animals that fed on carrion. The image of a raven pecking out the eyes of a dead warrior or feeding on the warrior'sflesh would have made a deep impression on a human observer. It is likely that ravens also fed on unburied corpses during the Bubonic plague in fourteenth century Europe, as they may have after the Great Fire of London in 1666. Such behavior would have changed human's perception of the raven from a valued companion for a hunter or warrior to an unwholesome scavenger. ### p15 the ancient Irish believed ravens had powers of augury > In ancient Ireland, people believed that calls of ravens predicted future events (Armstrong 1959, 73). The goddess Athene "hated the raven because of its powers of augury" (73).