Mind of the Raven Quotes

“As John Fowles points out in The Tree (1979), nature is, unlike art, created as “an external object with a history…but also creating in the present, as we experience it. As we watch, it is so to speak rewriting, reformulating, repainting, rephotographing itself.”
― Bernd Heinrich, Mind of the Raven: Investigations and Adventures with Wolf-Birds

“With ravens, the line between interpretation and fact is commonly a thin one, but as Mark Pavelka, who studied ravens for the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, said, “With other animals you can usually throw out 90 percent of the stories you hear about them as exaggerations. With ravens, it’s the opposite. No matter how strange or amazing the story, chances are pretty good that at least some raven somewhere actually did that.” That is because ravens are individuals. Ants aren’t.”
― Bernd Heinrich, Mind of the Raven: Investigations and Adventures with Wolf-Birds

“Is education possibly a process of trading awareness for things of less worth?”
― Bernd Heinrich, Mind of the Raven: Investigations and Adventures with Wolf-Birds

“Given the ravens’ predilection for poultry of all sizes, I provided my birds a recently killed raven that had been shot by a crow hunter. They reacted to this raven with loud, deep, rasping alarm calls. After some hours, they still ignored it. It was not eaten within minutes, unlike other birds I had given them that were pounced on in seconds. It was not eaten at all. They would easily recognize a live crow. But a dead one? Would they eat that? My curiosity aroused, I had to observe their reaction to a dead crow. I presented a young frozen crow from my stock of roadkill in the freezer to Whitefeather and Goliath. Both birds erupted in harsh, deep, rasping alarm calls, and just as with the dead raven, neither bird fed from the carcass. It eventually rotted in place. They did not even dig for the maggots.”
― Bernd Heinrich, Mind of the Raven: Investigations and Adventures with Wolf-Birds

“But the poetry of biology resides hidden in opposing tensions, and the often arduous fun comes from trying to reveal it.”
― Bernd Heinrich, Mind of the Raven: Investigations and Adventures with Wolf-Birds

“Luck is seldom as haphazard as it may seem. It means being at the right place at the right time, and most of all, it means being prepared to take advantage of opportunities.”
― Bernd Heinrich, Mind of the Raven: Investigations and Adventures with Wolf-Birds

“Ravens, like humans and unlike perhaps most other birds, probably do not have instructions to all of life’s problems laid out in advance, or they would not likely have been considered highly intelligent, and mythologized as creators, destroyers, prophets, playful clowns, and tricksters.”
― Bernd Heinrich, Mind of the Raven: Investigations and Adventures with Wolf-Birds

“observations”
― Bernd Heinrich, Mind of the Raven: Investigations and Adventures with Wolf-Birds

“... anecdotes can easily become interpretations, and the facts expand in minds when they are not opposed by knowledge.”
― Bernd Heinrich, Mind of the Raven

“All animals solve the same age-old problems relating to food, partnerships, sex, shelter, home, and caring for their young.”
― Bernd Heinrich, Mind of the Raven

“ROA, KONRAD LORENZ’S RAVEN, raided clotheslines to steal ladies’ underwear. Roa had been exploring a neighbor’s laundry hung on the line just when he was called. He came, taking a small transportable item with him, a pair of panties. When he got a reward of tasty food, he made the association of panties and food. Henceforth, as expected according to classical conditioning theory, he brought these items on his own to redeem them for savory snacks.”
― Bernd Heinrich, Mind of the Raven: Investigations and Adventures with Wolf-Birds

“I rolled the egg in my fingers, astonished by the purity of the light blue color and the symmetry of its shape. I found myself handling it delicately, as though afraid it might crack at my touch. This was more than just a beautiful object. Unlike all the other parts of birds, mammals, frogs, or snakes these young ravens might have eaten, this morsel still had a possible future. It could become a living bird. It had the potential to become a robin with a red breast who sings a beautifully melodious song at dawn. This egg was like the underdog kid who has beaten all the odds. The audience is cheering for him or her to continue, because he or she represents everyone’s hope. I gently placed the egg into my mouth, cradled it on my tongue, and took it down with me to find a robin’s nest and foster parents. Meanwhile,”
― Bernd Heinrich, Mind of the Raven: Investigations and Adventures with Wolf-Birds