Legend has it that the kingdom will fall if the ravens ever leave the Tower of London.
So the arrival of three new chicks during the nationwide lockdown is a reassuring sign.
The chicks hatched at the beginning of the month and are the offspring of two of the Tower’s residents ravens - Huginn and Muninn.
Mum and dad are already the parents of two of the other resident ravens, Poppy, named after the tourist attraction’s moving First World War centenary installation in 2014, and George, who arrived on St George’s Day last year.
Yeoman Warder Chris Skaife, Ravenmaster of the Tower, said: ‘Displaying their usual intelligence and good timing, the ravens have given us some much-needed good news to announce.
‘We are thrilled by the arrival of our new chicks and, though we don’t have room to keep them, we’re pleased that the bloodline of the Tower of London seems secure for the foreseeable future, which can only be good news for the Kingdom.’
He added: ‘We’re looking forward to welcoming them back when the time comes.’
Six ravens are traditionally kept at the Tower but at present there are eight, meaning its corvid accommodation is full.
The chicks have spent the first couple of weeks of their lives in the care of their parents and will now be relocated to breeders.
Raven chicks develop rapidly and the new arrivals will quadruple in size over the next few weeks.
Their black plumage will soon start to appear, although they will be almost a year old before their beaks turn from pink to the usual jet black colour.
It is the second year in a row that chicks have been produced at the 1,000-year-old fortress. Before that, none had been hatched there for 30 years.
It is not known how long ravens have lived there but King Charles II is generally accepted to have introduced the rule that there must always be at least six.
Music: "Digital Memories" Unicorn Heads by Youtube Music Library
Source: Daily Mail, Wikipedia
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/patryn.worldlatestnews
So the arrival of three new chicks during the nationwide lockdown is a reassuring sign.
The chicks hatched at the beginning of the month and are the offspring of two of the Tower’s residents ravens - Huginn and Muninn.
Mum and dad are already the parents of two of the other resident ravens, Poppy, named after the tourist attraction’s moving First World War centenary installation in 2014, and George, who arrived on St George’s Day last year.
Yeoman Warder Chris Skaife, Ravenmaster of the Tower, said: ‘Displaying their usual intelligence and good timing, the ravens have given us some much-needed good news to announce.
‘We are thrilled by the arrival of our new chicks and, though we don’t have room to keep them, we’re pleased that the bloodline of the Tower of London seems secure for the foreseeable future, which can only be good news for the Kingdom.’
He added: ‘We’re looking forward to welcoming them back when the time comes.’
Six ravens are traditionally kept at the Tower but at present there are eight, meaning its corvid accommodation is full.
The chicks have spent the first couple of weeks of their lives in the care of their parents and will now be relocated to breeders.
Raven chicks develop rapidly and the new arrivals will quadruple in size over the next few weeks.
Their black plumage will soon start to appear, although they will be almost a year old before their beaks turn from pink to the usual jet black colour.
It is the second year in a row that chicks have been produced at the 1,000-year-old fortress. Before that, none had been hatched there for 30 years.
It is not known how long ravens have lived there but King Charles II is generally accepted to have introduced the rule that there must always be at least six.
Source: Daily Mail, Wikipedia
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/patryn.worldlatestnews
Comments
Post a Comment