Raven cuddles pic.twitter.com/nhQneOJE5n
— Ravenmaster (@ravenmaster1) June 12, 2019
Chris Skaife is the Ravenmaster. That sounds like a pop culture affectation, like a title from a Harry Potter book, but it's a real job that Skaife knows inside out. He tends to the ravens that liven the Tower of London, where ravens are part of its tradition, and even its folklore.
The ravens are iconic occupants of the Tower, and central figures in the myths that soar through its stone walls. As legend has it, if the birds fly the coop or their ranks dwindle down to nothing, “the Tower itself will crumble into dust and great harm will befall the kingdom,” Skaife explains in his book, The Ravenmaster: My Life With the Ravens at the Tower of London. Since U.K. laws now stipulate that educational displays can only feature captive-bred birds, Skaife explains, the Tower no longer takes in wild-born corvids. But “we were finding less and less people to supply us with legal, captive-bred birds,” Skaife says. It wasn’t an emergency—ravens can live for decades in captivity, and the Tower’s oldest raven is said to have died at the age of 44. But Skaife was thinking about the future: Three or four decades down the line, where would the Tower get its inky, feathered citizens?
The answer is to breed ravens in the Tower. However, the only successful hatching at the Tower over several decades of attempts was one raven born in 1989. London has grown considerably since the 17th century, and the city is too loud and crowded for raven breeding. But Skaife managed to see four eggs laid and four ravens hatched at the Tower this year! It wasn't easy, but it was rewarding. Read the story of the Ravenmaster's new ravens at Atlas Obscura.