Common Ravens live all over Europe, Asia and North America, but we have a different sub-species here. Some biologists group our raven in with the North African sub-species (Corvus corax tingitanus) and others think the Canaries have their own sub-species (Corvus corax canariensis).
Like other members of the rook-and-crow family, they’ll eat whatever’s available: carrion, insects, cereal grains, berries, fruit, small animals, and food waste. And they’re pretty intelligent about getting it. At least two individual ravens at the Roque have learned to provide a photo opportunity in exchange for some food.
Carmelo hangs around the car park at the Roque itself, although I’ve met him at the Galileo telescope and observatory heliport. He’s got a ring around one ankle. The other raven doesn’t have an ankle ring, and I mostly see him near the Los Andennes viewpoint, and I call him Nevermore, after the poem “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe. (“Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.’ “)
