Common ravens (Corvus corax) are a member of the crow family that is widely distributed in Northern Canada, the Western United States, including Alaska portions of Western Mexico and the Appalachian mountains east of the Mississippi River.
Due to their range and habits, the common raven is protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (1918).
Ravens can reach lengths of up to 27 inches long, and have wingspans of about 4 feet. Ravens can achieve weights of up to 5 pounds. In appearance, ravens are shiny black in a manner similar to crows, but have a humped beak shape and are more solitary and more territorial than crows.
Ravens are extremely adaptable, and have been able to exploit human development much more successfully than a large number of other species. Ravens take advantage of human waste dumps and road kill for food, as well as being known predators of endangered species such as juvenile desert tortoises, eggs of California condors, and the young of Marbled murrelets and Least terns. Ravens will arrive “on scene” to road kill carcasses and other domestic and wild carrion hours before larger scavengers, such as vultures and the California condor.
Ravens are known for not only raiding garbage dumps, but foraging carrion left behind by both hunters and apex predators. Researchers in Wyoming have allegedly linked lead fragment ingestion by ravens from gut piles. Otherwise, ravens are considered as “surrogates” by these same researchers for fragment ingestion by Endangered Species Act listed grizzly bears and the formerly listed Northern Rocky Mountain Wolf-Distinct Population Segment in Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, and parts of Utah, Washington and Oregon.
Hunt for Truth has conducted research on raven management programs in relation to litigation filed by environmental groups claiming hunters and hunting cause preventable mortality in desert tortoises in the East Mojave Desert. Hunt for Truth is monitoring raven management and control plans for any indication of objective evidence that lead ammunition consumption by ravens is leading to lead toxicosis in ravens.
