#Repost! If you aren't following my corvid researcher friend, Kaeli Swift @corvidresearch, you need to! • • • Mondays can be hard. So here’s a raven trying to fulfill its mission to #PullAllTheTails to make your Monday a little brighter. Why do ravens pull tails you ask? Generally it has to do with stealing food from other animals, particularly birds of prey, wolves, and by extension, dogs. Although you might think this would always be a team effort that’s not the case. In fact most instances of tail pulling I saw in Denali were solo missions attempting to annoy dogs into retreating from their food. With two of the dogs it was pretty effective tactic. This behavior helps illustrate a common misconception about wolves and ravens. Rather than being friends or hunting partners, the relationship is both one sided and unwelcome by wolves. Ravens harass, steal from, and are occasionally killed by wolves. Cache here poses little threat to this raven though and it seems he or she knows it. You can even see it watch for Cache’s reaction before fully committing to its escape, which is maybe my favorite thing ever and surely a good cure of a case of the Monday’s. #denalinationalpark #commonraven #raven #raventailpull #raventail #denali #alaskalife #alaska #birds #corvid #ilovecorvids #tailpulling #corvidmischief #denalik9rangers #k9rangers #doggo #funny
