Mind of the Raven

I saw my first raven near Mount Rainier. The bird looked me in the eye, hopped to the left, sized me up, and continued his business. The advancing Russian army drove Bernd Heinrich and his family into the forest near Hahnheide, Germany, where they lived in a small hut for five years.

There, he began his lifelong quest to connect with insects (especially bees), owls, trees, antelope (he runs ultramarathons), geese...and ravens. The mind of the Raven is a deep, scientific meditation on the intersection between being human and raven. It concludes that “ultimately [our differences are] less a matter… show more.

This book is a scientist’s telling of his serious and quirky ambition to know what ravens know. When I got to the description of an experiment whose distinguishing feature was the author wearing a kimono, that’s when I realized I’d been learning as much about the mind of a raven biologist.

I love this book for showing how much more bird brains have in common with human brains–with respect to their capacity for emotion and intellect–than is commonly appreciated.

If you are like me, you’ve always wanted to know if ravens are moral creatures, and lucky for hard-headed us, Bernd Heinrich is no bleeding-heart tree hugger.

He instead is a scientist who, in his book Mind of the Raven, recounts the time he adopted four young ravens and became their “surrogate parent” on the supposition that “the first prerequisite to studying any animal is to get close and to stay close.”

This book, then, is a drama where both Heinrich and his ravens endeavor to cross the barrier between species. Because they learn much, we learn much, and on… show more.

When I was far too young to understand it, I devoured Konrad Lorenz’s King Solomon’s Ring, fascinated by how he communicated with animals. Fast forward several years, and I was even more delighted to read Bernd Heinrich’s account of his interactions with ravens. Any Alaskan who’s paying attention has to marvel at these smart, ubiquitous, hardy “wolf birds.” I’m embarrassed to admit that one of the ravens I most remember from the book is the one which, perched near an outdoor bathroom, could precisely imitate the sound of a flushing toilet.