Cheyenne's Howl

Printed in Mountain Messenger on Friday February 21, 1997

Ravens & Wolves

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As most of you know, we wolves depend on each other for survival in the wild. Each of us plays a part within our pack that will guarantee that food will be found, or the sick or lame will be taken care of, or that the young cubs are cared for. As a pack, we are self sufficient, we need help from no one. Unless an animal would look good to us laying across our dinner plate, we usually pay them no mind.

We do, however, have kind of a social relationship going on with Ravens. Individual ravens and wolves will actually form bonds with each other. I have ten ravens that come to play with me, seven of them I like. The other three, I must admit that I would love to see in a black bird pie. These three come down to the Gallery and sit on a rock just out of my reach and caw, caw at me while I am trying to cat nap. Now a good old fashion Howl is music to my ears, but that caw, caw, caw drives me nuts.

Out in the wild, many times ravens and wolves will work together while hunting for food. The raven will act as an aerial spotter and fly just ahead of the wolves leading us to the next "Cafe on the Run." The ravens will sit up in a tree and watch us while we are enjoying our meal and then after we are done will pick up the scraps we have left. I do not mind sharing the scraps with the ravens that lead us to our new restaurant, it's the ravens that just follow our trail in hopes of finding a free meal that bug me. Those, just like those other three, would make a great tasting black bird pie.

After we have all eaten, wolves and ravens will sometimes play games of tag. The ravens will chase us and dive bomb at our heads or tails and we will duck and then jump up at them. Sometimes we will pretend that we are resting and a raven will get brave and waddle up behind us and peck at our tails. If I really had not been sleeping the last time that happened, I could have had a black bird pie for dessert. Don't look at me that way. When was the last time you caught a raven with your mouth?

Did you know?

*When wolves move into a new territory, the coyote and lynx move out.

*The most dangerous relationship that a wolf has is his relationship with man.

For those of you who would like to know more about wolves, my favorite book store, Polly Chandler's in Georgetown, has all kinds of books on us. Check them out and be sure to tell them that Cheyenne sent you.

Cheyenne