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BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

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Factual: Science & Nature: Nature & Environment

Nature that has had a profound impact on human culture and society across history.

Nature that has got under our skin and profoundly impacted human culture and society across our history.

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Natural Histories: Raven

Raven

BBC Radio 4 - Natural Histories, Raven

Brett Westwood gets up close and personal with a bird we fear and revere, the Raven.

Ravens have inspired fear as well as respect as Brett Westwood discovers when he dips into Norse mythology, meets an individual bird and listens to a roost at night. From 2016

Our relationship with ravens can be traced back many thousands of years. According to Norse mythology the god Odin had two ravens named Huginn (meaning ‘thought’) and Munnin (meaning ‘memory’). He would send them out each day to fly around the world and then return to perch on his shoulders and tell him of what they had seen and heard.   With its black colouration, croaking calls and diet of carrion, the raven has long been considered a bird of ill omen , but this over-simplifies our relationship with these highly successful birds as Brett Westwood discovers when he eavesdrops on their conversations at night, meets a man who has reared a raven and talks to a scientist who has long been fascinated by their powers of intelligence. Ravens are more like us than you might like to think. 

Original producer : Sarah Blunt
Reversion producer : Andrew Dawes

First broadcast in a longer form : 8th November 2016

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