Posts Tagged ‘raven’

Sep
02

Raven’s name!

Posted by in Behind the Scenes,Birds,Natural Encounters

At long last we have bestowed upon our Lady Raven a name.  There was much debate and deliberation over what would fit this bird.  Several people suggested Lenore and it was definitely hard to resist this one, but since Poe’s Lenore came to a mysterious and untimely end, we thought perhaps we wouldn’t invite fate along on this quest for a name.  If you are following along with the comments, you might have seen Kara suggest the name ”Quoth” so when we introduced her during a presentation we could say “This is Quoth…the raven”.  Zoo Keeper’s tend to have a quirky sense of humor so this was a  front runner for a long time, but when we call her to us from a distance, it’s difficult to say “Here Quoth”.  So back to the drawing board.

We are enjoying working with her immensely, but she definitely keeps us on our toes!  She can be soliciting a scratch or a play session one second and then clacking her beak at you and attempting to abscond with your treat container the next.  She definitely has her own ideas about what she wants to do and how a training session should progress, and although we shied away from Lenore, we thought an obscure Poe reference could be in order.

So all the factors; her flight was delayed because of a storm, she changes moods on a dime, Poe reference….hmmmm…

Finally we hit on the perfect name!

We’d like to introduce Tempest the Raven!

 

 

Natural Encounters Keeper Amelia plays a game of tug-of-war with Tempest as Supervisor Amanda watches the fun.

We hope you like our choice and we are looking forward to blogging about all our adventures training with and being educated by Tempest.  She is learning so fast we can hardly keep up and we hope to have her public debut in the next few months.

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Jul
28

Lady Raven’s identity

Posted by in Behind the Scenes,Birds,Natural Encounters

Natural Encounters Keeper Amelia with our finally identified Lady Raven.

No longer will we need to sit  engaged in guessing, with multiple syllables expressing the gender of Raven.  We got the lab tests results and SHE will grow into a beautiful Lady as she gets older.  Now comes the fun part, choosing her name!  We’d love to hear suggestions from the audience!

 

 

 

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Jul
25

Raven’s eyes from an iPhone

Posted by in Behind the Scenes,Birds,Natural Encounters

Well, (stately raven of the saintly days of yore) doesn’t exactly apply to our kid quite yet.  While (s)he is getting much better at balancing and is developing flight muscles, it’s still a bit of a toss up if the intended landing target will be hit or not, and sometimes watching Raven getting from one side of the enclosure to the other can be quite entertaining for the staff! Still a bit of a clumsy juvenile.

We are all  getting very excited about the end of quarantine.  August 1st is the official day and then we can take her/him to Natural Encounters.  We also sent in a few feathers this week to a lab that will run a DNA test and give us the answer to our Lord vs Lady question. I will be happy to stop using either/or gender references and we can hardly wait for the results so we can choose a name! Any bets on whether it be Lord or Lady? What name should we choose?

In the mean time, here are some pictures from our play session today.  Raven is very curious about my iPhone.  Both of these shots clearly show the blue/gray color of a juvenile raven’s eyes. They will turn brown as Raven matures this year.

Raven checks out my iPhone.

My pretty gray eyes will be brown when I grow up.

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Jul
06

Raven’s Flight

Posted by in Behind the Scenes,Birds,Natural Encounters

It was a morning very dreary, and I was certainly quite weary as I waited during the pre-dawn hours in the cargo area at IAH  for a plane that was delayed thanks to hurricane Alex.  Perhaps it was fitting that this particular shipment was tempest tossed, but it only added to the usual worry that accompanies an animal transport.  This was a youngster , traveling for the first time.   Our new fledgling raven was arriving on an overnight flight from Alaska.  The new baby was barely four weeks old and we couldn’t wait to meet him, or her…Lord or Lady as Poe’s character mused in his famous poem. Not being a dimorphic species, we’ll have to wait for genetic testing to tell us if our new arrival be Lord or Lady.

The new "baby" raven!

Eventually my fretting over the transport was relieved when the porter brought me a crate addressed to the Houston Zoo.  My first peak inside, however, revealed more than I bargained for!  Our new ” baby” was not what one generally imagines when one thinks of a baby bird.  I felt what Poe’s character surely felt when a raven invited itself  into his chamber.  That being complete astonishment! This baby bird, at four weeks, is about a foot and a half tall and weighs close to a kilo!  It definitely won’t be nestling in the palm of our hand, although it’s not yet coordinated enough for perching on a bust of Pallas.

Aside from being the harbinger of the afterlife in the mind of Poe’s protagonist, Raven’s are famous for their problem solving abilities and sense of play. In fact, I had no sooner got Raven settled in the capable hands of our clinic staff in the quarantine area when the keeper called me wondering what I thought about transferring the raven to a bigger cage.  It had already completely explored the cage we thought would be a good home during quarantine, torn up all the paper and was looking for more to do. Raven will certainly be a fun and challenging new addition to the Natural Encounters area.

Follow our posts as we blog about getting to know our Raven and ravens in general in the coming weeks.

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