A raven shot in Va. now has a new home in Ithaca, N.Y.

She took the raven to two veterinarians after she received the call about a yr back. They each told her nothing could be completed to assist the chicken because it had been shot in the shoulder and had a critical rotator cuff damage.

“One of the vets recommended euthanasia,” Sevcenko mentioned, outlining the chook — nicknamed King Kong because of its big dimension — would by no means fly again.

Sevcenko experienced other tips for King Kong.

“I just looked at this attractive hen — the major raven I’d ever viewed — and I imagined, ‘He doesn’t seem to be in ache. Possibly there’s some thing we can do, even though his injuries are lasting and he’ll under no circumstances absolutely be a raven yet again.’”

Sevcenko, who for yrs has been a accredited rehabilitator at her residence and for numerous sanctuaries, formalized her compact hen rehab facility in 2020 and named it Diva Crows. She reported her mission is to launch as quite a few birds as probable again into the wild, but she realized that would not be probable for King Kong.

Sevcenko and 1 of her volunteers, Sam Sparks, wrapped the bird’s wing to offer help as it healed. They introduced King Kong berries, nuts and lifeless mice, as effectively as contemporary water so the bird could consider a bathtub every single early morning.

“We did our greatest to source enrichment, but he wasn’t quite responsive to interaction,” Sevcenko, 60, mentioned.

Ravens are really intelligent birds, capable of keeping grudges, stashing food stuff and making use of gestures to talk. King Kong was no exception, Sevcenko stated.

A 3-legged dog was having difficulties. A high faculty engineering course stepped in.

“He’s muscular, weighs almost 3 pounds and operates like the wind,” she said. “He’s genuinely an amazing creature.”

Previous summertime, when King Kong had adequately healed from his injuries, Sevcenko and her personnel looked for a new household for the chicken. They imagined the Cayuga Mother nature Heart in Ithaca, N.Y., may well be a excellent in good shape.

It took quite a few months to get the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services to approve the transfer throughout state traces due to the fact birds are safeguarded under the Migratory Chicken Treaty Act, Sevcenko stated. But final month, the move lastly happened.

“I was relieved, due to the fact I could tell he was not pleased listed here — he considered I’d accomplished him improper simply because I’d wrapped his wing and pried open up his mouth for remedies,” Sevcenko stated.

Her motor vehicle died, so she walks to do the job. A person day on the wander, she identified $15,000.

Ravens bear in mind faces and can remember regardless of whether a person manufactured them come to feel cheated or threatened, experiments exhibit. Sevcenko stated she wholeheartedly agrees.

“When I was not about, he’d be out sunning himself and discovering,” she included. “From his stage of watch, I was not a individual he felt at ease all-around.”

In mid-January, Joe Capone, a Diva Crows volunteer, drove the raven three several hours to a Starbucks in Harrisburg, Pa., about midway to Ithaca. He was satisfied by Shyia Magan, director of are living animals for the Cayuga Mother nature Heart. Magan transported the fowl yet another a few hrs to the sanctuary.

“This raven is a real good results story — it was a joyful second to comprehend he was going to have a fresh new start out in a new property,” said Capone, 61, a retired federal prosecutor who now devotes his spare time to encouraging at Diva Crows and releasing successfully handled birds again into the wild.

“Ravens are stunning, smart and social birds, and this was the very best achievable end result,” Capone explained. “There is a great deal of sadness in this business — loads of birds really do not make it. So it is often a delighted second when you can help save 1.”

Following King Kong arrived at the Cayuga Character Heart, one of the 1st orders of enterprise was to give him a new title, explained Magan, 26, noting that the sanctuary gives a everlasting property for a wide range of animals and four other birds — a turkey vulture, a pink-tailed hawk, a good horned owl and a collared dove.

“We resolved to enable him to select his own title,” she reported, outlining that team users wrote 5 names — Indigo, Eolas, Tarot, Renwykon and Bertrand — on small pieces of paper and a lifeless mouse was placed on best of each and every identify.

He picked the useless mouse that was on leading of the identify Bertrand.

“Bertrand means ‘bright raven,’ so it was great,” Magan said. “It suits him. All people phone calls him Bert for small.”

It took Bertrand a few weeks to heat up to new surroundings, and he used various times searching for a way to escape the outdoor enclosure, she mentioned. But Bert is now chatting with crows that fly by, and seems additional open up to acquiring men and women all-around, Magan claimed.

“Every working day, we’ll feed him fruit, vegetables, pet kibble and some kind of prey product — like an egg or a mouse or rat,” she mentioned. “We’ll wrap his food stuff in newspaper or hide it in a box, and he’ll determine out how to get to it.”

Bert’s favored address is cutup pears or apples, and he will generally cover mice to love as a snack later, she stated. Scientific studies display ravens are smart and able of summary assumed. They are usually conniving and intelligent, especially when it will come to hiding their foodstuff.

She and other staff members customers hope Bertrand will be open to learning new behaviors, these as perching on command, so they can bring him out of the enclosure when school groups visit for academic applications and summer months camps, she said.

“He’s so good and so current, and we all delight in looking at him hop all-around,” Magan mentioned. “He’s a legitimate character.”

A student needed health-related care and a property. His instructors adopted him.

Sevcenko said which is what she’d hoped to hear soon after she stated goodbye to the distinguished-on the lookout raven in January.

Though she misses having Bert around (she’s delighted to phone him his new title now), she mentioned she is delighted he is settling into a new schedule at the Cayuga Character Heart.

“It was a treat and an honor to have him with us for as prolonged as we did,” she said. “He’ll under no circumstances be free, but at the very least he’s in a superb setup now. Soon after all that he’s been by, he now has the dwelling that he warrants.”