Ravens Are People Too
I’ve been busy as of late and had to put this one in the “to do” blog pile.
ERIC ENGMAN /Fairbanks Daily News-Miner via The Associated Press
After two ravens roosting on top of a power transformer were electrocuted, hundreds of ravens showed up within a minute or two and started silently circling overhead and perching in nearby trees.
Rod Stephens, owner of Rod’s Saw Shop across the street, saw the scene play out before his eyes after a man pulled into the shop and reported seeing sparks flying on top of the transformer.
“I walked out there and there were all these birds just circling. There were ravens in all the trees,” he said. “It was weird.”
Stephens estimated the number of ravens at “a couple hundred.”
This is similar to the story I posted recently about the chimpanzee funeral.
Do animals other than humans pay respect to their lost brethren? I don’t know; but I can’t see why it’s not possible.
Just because animals can’t talk doesn’t mean they can’t communicate, certainly with their own kind, but with other animals and with us humans. They learn.
Our two remaining cats were out of sorts for days when their elderly ailing fellow feline finally went to Kitty Heaven. I believe they were mourning, in their way. Then they shook off the malaise and went about their business. The kitty wake was over.
The First People believed in the spirit world. Why wouldn’t animals have their own special kind of soul? Why should we believe WE are the only beings with souls?
Ravens are highly intelligent beings.
At our local zoo, the man in charge of the aviary has many kinds of birds, including parrots. ( African Grays are supposedly as intelligent as 3 year olds…).
I asked him about the parrots…he said, yes, they are very intelligent.
But these, he said – pointing at a raven ( a former pet)- are the smartest of all.
So yes…intelligent and highly social…they mourn.