Mind of the Raven: Investigations and Adventures with Wolf-Birds

Additional Mind of the Raven: Investigations and Adventures with Wolf-Birds Information

In Mind of the Raven, Bernd Heinrich, award - winning naturalist, finds himself dreaming of ravens and decides he must get to the truth about this animal reputed to be so intelligent.

Much like a sleuth, Heinrich involves us in his quest, letting one clue lead to the next. But as animals can only be spied on by getting quite close Heinrich adopts ravens, thereby becoming a "raven father," as well as observing them in their natural habitat, studying their daily routines, and in the process painting a vivid picture of the world as lived by the ravens. At the heart of this book are Heinrich's love and respect for these complex and engaging creatures, and through his keen observation andanalysis, we become their intimates too.

Throughout history there has existed an extraordinary relationship between humans and ravens. Ravens, like early humans, are scavengers on the kills of great carnivores. As scavengers, ravens were associated with hunters they found in the north: wolves and, later, men. The trinity of wolf, man, and raven in the hunt is an extremely ancient one. In considering the appeal of the raven, Bernd Heinrich suspects that a meeting of the minds might reside in that hunting trinity.

Heinrich's passion for ravens has led him around the world in his research. Mind of the Raven takes you on an exotic journey--from New England to Germany, Montana to Baffin Island in the high Arctic--offering dazzling accounts of how science works in the field, filtered through the eyes of a passionate observer of nature.

Heinrich has a true gift; through his stories, his beautiful writing, illustrations, and photography, the ravens come alive. Each new discovery and insight into their behavior is thrilling to read. just as the title promises, the reader is given a rare glimpse into the mind of these wonderful creatures.Following the dictum of Leonardo da Vinci--"It is not enough to believe what you see. YOU Must also understand what you see"--Bernd Heinrich enables us to see the natural world through the eyes of a scientist. At once lyrical and scientific, Mind of the Raven is bound to be a modern classic.

What Customers Say About Mind of the Raven: Investigations and Adventures with Wolf-Birds:

Instead this is a collection of stories that jumps around in place and time. I really tried to like this book, but after slogging through 3/4 of it I finally gave up. It really don't provide any coherent picture of ravens other then that they are really cool birds. It was just very boring. I expected more organized research, with interesting hypotheses or at least organized conclusions. The author seems like a really nice guy. :(

We also learn about Heinrich's childhood, how he bred wild, dangerous animals on his parent's farm, and so on. In that sense, it's worth reading. Books about ravens and other corvids usually are. But OK, I'll give the book four stars for the sake of the ravens. There are also descriptions of how the author kills deer, opens the carcasses, and then places them in trees to attract the ravens. Sometimes I wonder whether natural history books tells us more about their authors than about the animals themselves.

Bernd Heinrich constantly attempts to prove that he is manly and macho, and seems to have a morbid fascination with death, blood and dominance. And yet, I nevertheless didn't like the book. And yes, he really is Volksdeutsche. At one point, he gleefully reports a meaningless "experiment" he conducted at his farm: he quite simply tossed one of his geese into a cage housing hungry, young ravens, simply to see what would happen. I admit that "The Mind of the Raven" was an interesting book. "The experiment was inconclusive". Heinrich must have been disappointed, so he killed the chicken, and fed them to the ravens in boiled condition instead.

During a visit to Yellowstone, Heinrich complains about so many carnivores having left the area. Finally, however, he reaches a really wild part of the national park, where wolves roam and kill freely, accompanied by ravens, of course. Is this man really a bird lover. Provided you are interested in corvids, of course. Apparently, he lived in a unaccesible part of Maine most of his life.

Naturally, they attacked the poor goose. He also threw a couple of chicken into the same cage, but this time the ravens didn't react. Less gory are Heinrich's descriptions of a pet raven belonging to his good friend Doktor Klaus, and a trip to northern Canada to study a large flock of ravens which live right inside a town.

This is a great addition to your library if you are interested in crows. It's a bit dry, but interesting.

Just a great book, highly recommended. Has a delightful and thought-provoking mix of the lyrical appreciation of nature, bean-counter quantitative core of science, the amusing biographical anecdote, and thru it all the book moves forward to the exciting discovery that in Yellowstone ravens are wolf-birds. Bernd Heinrich might just be the greatest living biologist/writer we have.

I first studied and sketched a raven in the wild when I moved to northern New Mexico in 1975. They tug the tails of wolves yet will flee as if terrified of a small foreign object that Bernd placed in the aviary. Ravens in Winter gave me insights about this bird that I still value deeply.

I watched one soaring in place in the updraft a few feet above my head on a ridge along South Truchas Peak. The antics of Fuzz, Goliath, Whitefeather and others in Heinrich Bernd's aviary remain etched in my mind.Bernd takes us beyond Maine this time into Europe and Alaska where we see how adaptable this species is to a wide variety of environments and habitats. I was hooked thereafter by everything natural and mythological about ravens.

So it was with great anticipation that I finally picked up Mind of the Raven two months ago.What a pleasure to read again how this specialist interacts with his birds and interprets their behaviors and characters. One flew on to the portal of my friend Bill Tate's art gallery on Canyon Road, then walked inside, perched on his desk for five minutes, posed for polaroid pictures and left.two days in a row. I observed hundreds of them every time I visited the Santa Fe landfill.

Ravens, I discovered, readily eat dead skunk and thrive in winter on the arctic tundra at 45 below zero. I could go on but I recommend this book highly to anyone who wants to feel closer to our natural world through the special behaviors of a fascinating and "intelligent" black bird.