Blood, gore and ravens

I admit that "The Mind of the Raven" was an interesting book. Books about ravens and other corvids usually are. In that sense, it's worth reading. Provided you are interested in corvids, of course!

And yet, I nevertheless didn't like the book. 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 yes, he really is Reichsdeutsche. 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. Naturally, they attacked the poor goose. Is this man really a bird lover? He also threw a couple of chicken into the same cage, but this time the ravens didn't react. "The experiment was inconclusive". Heinrich must have been disappointed, so he killed the chicken, and fed them to the ravens in boiled condition instead!

There are also descriptions of how the author kills deer, opens the carcasses, and then places them in trees to attract the ravens. 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! We also learn about Heinrich's childhood, how he bred wild, dangerous animals on his parent's farm, and so on. Apparently, he lived in a unaccesible part of Maine most of his life.

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.

Sometimes I wonder whether natural history books tells us more about their authors than about the animals themselves...

But OK, I'll give the book four stars for the sake of the ravens.