Questions · Behaviour
Do Ravens Make Good Pets? The Honest Answer
[science] No — ravens do not make good pets for most people, and keeping them is illegal without specific permits in most countries. Ravens are highly intelligent wild birds with complex social, cognitive, foraging, and spatial needs that cannot be met in a typical domestic environment. Under-stimulated captive ravens become destructive and stressed. The legal, ethical, and practical barriers to keeping ravens are substantial.
Legal Status: Most Countries Prohibit It
[science] Wild Common Ravens are legally protected in most of their range:1
- USA: protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA). Illegal to possess a wild raven or its feathers, eggs, or nest without a federal permit. No "pet raven" permits are routinely issued to private individuals.
- UK: protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. Illegal to intentionally kill, injure, or take a wild raven.
- EU: protected under the Birds Directive (Directive 2009/147/EC). Member states may not permit capture except under specific scientific or conservation circumstances.
- Canada: protected under the Migratory Birds Convention Act.
Captive-bred ravens (from licensed breeding facilities) may be legal to own in some jurisdictions, but sourcing one is difficult and legitimate breeders are extremely rare.
What Ravens Need in Captivity
[science] Meeting a raven's welfare needs in captivity requires:2
- Large flight space: ravens in the wild fly many kilometres daily. Even large garden aviaries cannot provide adequate flight exercise.
- Social stimulation: ravens are social birds. A lone raven with minimal human interaction will suffer. Even a raven bonded to a human keeper needs conspecific contact.
- Cognitive enrichment: ravens have high cognitive needs. Without mental challenge — puzzle feeders, novel objects, foraging tasks, social interaction — they become bored and destructive.
- Appropriate diet: ravens eat a varied omnivore diet including carrion, invertebrates, eggs, and meat. Maintaining this diet is costly and demanding.
- Veterinary care: specialist avian veterinary care is required, and few veterinary practices have specific raven expertise.
Under-stimulated captive ravens are known to destroy property, become aggressive towards humans and other animals, develop repetitive stereotyped behaviours, and become severely stressed.
Historical Accounts of Captive Ravens
[lore] Ravens have been kept captive for millennia — by Viking-age Norse people, by falconers, by naturalists, and in historic zoos and estates. Konrad Lorenz's accounts of his free-living captive ravens in King Solomon's Ring (1949) describe birds that formed strong bonds with people, learned complex behaviours, and showed striking intelligence — but Lorenz's conditions (large property, free-flight, naturalistic conditions) are not replicable by most private keepers.2
Related Pages
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you legally keep a raven as a pet?
In most countries, keeping wild Common Ravens is illegal without specific permits. In the United States, ravens are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act — it is illegal to possess a wild raven, its eggs, feathers, or nest without a federal permit. In the UK, ravens are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. Similar legislation applies across Europe. Some jurisdictions permit captive ravens in licensed wildlife rehabilitation or falconry contexts, but keeping a raven as a household pet is generally not legally possible without extensive permits rarely granted to private individuals.
What are ravens like as captive birds?
Historically, ravens have been kept captive by falconers and naturalists, and accounts (including Konrad Lorenz's detailed writing) describe ravens forming strong individual bonds with their keepers. They are highly intelligent, curious, and capable of learning. However, captive ravens require extensive stimulation, large flight spaces, social interaction (ideally with other ravens), varied diet, and mental challenges — needs that are very difficult to meet in a typical home environment. Under-stimulated captive ravens become destructive, aggressive, or develop stereotyped behaviours.
Did Konrad Lorenz keep ravens?
Yes. Konrad Lorenz, the Nobel laureate ethologist, kept and studied ravens (along with many other species) for decades and wrote about them in his popular book "King Solomon's Ring" (1949). His accounts of raven behaviour — their intelligence, play, and social bonds with people — are some of the most detailed early observations of corvid cognition. Lorenz's ravens were kept in naturalistic, free-flight conditions on his rural property, not as house pets. His observations contributed significantly to what we now understand about raven intelligence.
Sources
- US Fish & Wildlife Service. Migratory Bird Treaty Act; Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (UK); Directive 2009/147/EC (EU Birds Directive). — legal status of Common Raven in major jurisdictions.
- Lorenz, K. (1949; trans. M.K. Wilson, 1952). King Solomon's Ring. Methuen. — captive raven observations, bonding with humans, behaviour.
[science] peer-reviewed or regulatory data | [lore] named source