Ravens, the hunter's eye in the sky?

I heard the same story about magpies, crows ravens etc. from my grandfather. Can't say I have ever seen a 100 percent correlation but it would make sense.
 
Ravens can live to a VERY old age...they learn Food Gathering Tips very fast...and remember them well.50 years is possible for a Raven. I have raised Raven chicks to maturity, and they AMAZED me with how smart they are. Respectfully...Oh two dogs, how did you get your name?
 
Deerdr said:
Ravens can live to a VERY old age...they learn Food Gathering Tips very fast...and remember them well.50 years is possible for a Raven. I have raised Raven chicks to maturity, and they AMAZED me with how smart they are. Respectfully...Oh two dogs, how did you get your name?
Click to expand...

my wife's relatives that live on the Rez named me that because I have always had two dogs since forever. Never had only one dog, at a time I had three dogs, but my name did not change.:)
 
Ive always seen then following coyotes, usually when i see ravens circling I usually see a coyote shortly after. Same idea I think they are waiting for a food source.
 
For a few years there were a pair of ravens near my home where I hunt that would do a fly over when they saw me walking with my rifle. On two occasions they circled me and flew off and began circling and calling some distance away. When I walked over and watched the area they were focused on I ended up shooting bucks right under or near them. Both times I left a nice chunk of liver on the gutpile for them.

I Saw a documentary about ravens in Scotland and it mentioned that they were known for doing this very thing there as well.
 
I believe that a raven is smart enough to do it. Trouble is I also believe that they are smart enough to know that nobody is listening to them. For learned behavior to develope it would have to pay off once in a while.

Some people do seem to be genetically incapable of going past a gutpile without looking at it, and I suppose that ravens could have deduced from that that people are following them around. Other predators are definitely attracted to the circling ravens, I've called coyotes using only raven sounds. Given eons, the birds could have made the connection between attracting predators and getting fed. Alternately, given a great deal of time the Indians could have just seen the makings of a good story.

Its interesting to think about, even if I think that they are likely just already on a food source.

In an unrelated note; has anyone else noticed that when there's ravens, crows or magpies there is often a gut-pile, but when there's an eagle in the mix there's usually some red meat involved? I've seen that one over and over, whether its lost deer, or shot coyotes. You can make money betting on that one.
 
Yeah, usually if eagles are there it's road kill or something.

On a side note, you've probably all seen crows or Ravens harassing an eagle.
One time I saw an eagle and raven circling each other for a few minutes then they roosted in the same tree. Strange. Never knew what to think of that. I'm pretty sure I even have a picture of it somewhere.
 
The Ravens were circling while I was piling my firewood this fall and a Indian from Redbank stopped by and said it is going to be a cold winter.I said how do you know.He said I see the signs.I said what Signs.He said I see white man cut a lot of firewood.
 
When I see ravens hanging around it usually means a gut pile.

That said, I have seen them around with no apparent gut-pile present. In those situations, I suspect that they are aware of game close-by.
So, I do think that sometimes the ravens are hanging around hoping for an easy meal.

It makes sense that they can see game before a hunter can. And they must figure out that hunters sometimes turn deer, etc. into gut-piles...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom