Across the U.K., ravens, once peaceful scavengers, have taken to attacking livestock in huge murderous storms. Scottish and Welsh farmers have recently reported flocks of ravens descending on lambs and literally pecking them to death. Kind of like the movie The Birds! just more sensationalized by the British media...
Beware! Poor metaphors and juvenile symbolism ahead!
Jimmy Mills, a farmer from the town of Stratherrick claims to have lost seven lambs in the last two weeks. In this article in the Daily Mail, he said "The lambs are born at...
...1pm and by four o'clock they've been taken to bits by the ravens."
English scientists do not have an exact explanation for the sudden change in raven behavior. They are speculating that it may be related to a spike in the British raven population over the last 10 years. The relative scarcity of food could very well have led to the birds taking matters into their own talons. By British law, ravens are a protected species as well, meaning for the time being, the farmers' have no course of action other than to do their best to protect their lambs.
Trying to stay as impartial as ever, Jane Fryer of the Daily Mail begins her article, "High in the darkening sky, a flock of enormous ravens swoop and swirl - narrow black wings stretched wide, heads protruding forward and huge hairy beaks scything through the air." Jane, what a dead on description! Get it? Dead on? Anyway, I was just telling Andrew the other day how ravens' thick, pointed beaks remind me of skinny, curved scythes. And the way they keep their heads totally still while they fly totally evokes the image of a farmer moving back and forth as he chafes wheat. Do I smell a Pulitzer?
Life Science
Comments
Hmm, didn't parrots in New Zealand take to doing something a lot like this?
Posted by: BlueMako | May 6, 2008 4:48 PM
According to Wikipedia, the Kea strips rubber from cars and fat from the backs of lambs. Unsurprisingly, lambs have been known to die from that.
Posted by: pough | May 6, 2008 4:56 PM
And the way they keep their heads totally still while they fly totally evokes the image of a farmer moving back and forth as he chafes wheat. Do I smell a Pulitzer?
Dude, I smell something else entirely. Farmers do not harvest wheat by irritating it or making it impatient.
And what better collective noun than "unkindness"?? The relatives of raven, rooks and crows, travel in "buildings" and "murders". Bwahahahaha!!! Quoth the raven, and all that.
Posted by: Barn Owl | May 6, 2008 5:04 PM
Interesting.
I think Ravens have been known as serious birds of prey for some time. Perhaps the relevant question here is why have they not been eating baby lambs for the last several decades?
Posted by: Greg Laden | May 6, 2008 5:08 PM
Brings new meaning to some of the lines from Edgar Allan Poe's famous poem:
Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!
Posted by: Barn Owl | May 6, 2008 5:46 PM
I recently heard that the old world vultures have taken to killing animals because of EU requirements that dead animals be disposed of immediately due to the threat of mad cow disease. Perhaps the Ravens are being deprived of carrion. rb
Posted by: arby | May 6, 2008 10:25 PM
Time for the tiny, lamb-sized, flak jackets and helmets.
And whereas it is illegal for humans to harm ravens I think a head-mounted .22 pistol on the sheep, fired by their squeezing a rubber bulb that works a pneumatic slave cylinder connected to the trigger, might just pass legal muster.
I see vast new profit making potential militarizing the pasture.
Posted by: Art | May 6, 2008 11:37 PM
Hey! What's with the sudden diss on birds? (Not from Zooillogix folks--just to clarify.) They gotta eat to! Stupid little lambs! (grumble) Just because raven's aren't cuddly and "cute" we have no sympathy. Ptoooey I say! (all said, sort of in jest, I'm a huge bird fan--no I'm not huge.....aw, never mind.) ;0
Pat
Posted by: Pat | May 7, 2008 5:18 PM
If the Brits aren't okay with equipping lambs with automated firearms, maybe the farmers can mount scarecrows on the backs of all their lambs. That'll get rid of the crows, and provide fun crafty activities for the farmers' families.
Posted by: Raging Wombat | May 7, 2008 5:59 PM
Christ! Don't anyone tell chickens they're descended from T-rex imagine what they might do.
The Daily Mail is a byword for cack journalism.
Posted by: Peter Mc | May 12, 2008 11:04 AM
Kind of like the movie The Birds! just more sensationalized by the British media...
If I remember correctly, 'The Birds' was based on a real event when the birds that went mad supposedly did so because they ate a toxic harmful algal bloom (red tide) called pseudonitzschia.
Posted by: Sheril R. Kirshenbaum | May 12, 2008 10:21 PM
the unkindness of the congress equals dinner.
Posted by: genesgalore | May 13, 2008 7:56 AM
"Oh well, carrion regardless."
[/Pratchett]
Posted by: skyotter | May 13, 2008 4:57 PM
Art, I would pay good money to observe a flock of sheep armed as you describe, anywhere in the world, from behind multiple layers of bulletproof glass.
I smell the next great video-game smash hit!
Posted by: TheBrummell | May 19, 2008 7:01 PM