3-18-10 MRNP Raven Vandals

My buddy Ed told me there is an ongoing epidemic of wiper blade thefts by Longmire ravens!  Best guess is they're lining their nests?  Employees there have had to make slotted PVC guards to stop them.  Anybody had this happen at Paradise?  Seems only a matter of time...   : 

I'd doublecheck employee living quarters if I were you...

I was hiking in desert southwest a few years ago and a similar situation was taking place. We stopped in a trail head parking lot. All the cars in the lot had towels wrapped around their windshield wipers. Then we found the explanation. Posted all around the lot were posters from the state park telling people not to leave their wiper blade uncovered because Ravens were stealing them. It reported that several blades had disappeared in this manner. Having enjoyed following the antics of these back country jokers for many years, I believe nothing is out of the question when Ravens get involved.

I left a cooler full of beer inside a black plastic bag buried in the snow outside the Silcox Hut on Mt Hood one year on our summit day. upon returning I found the black plastic bag scattered in shreds, the cooler lying open and the beer cans scattered. Luckily, they didn't figure out how to pop the pop top cans :
Steve, the hut host at the Silcox assures us that they can and DO open packs left unattended. One opened a rib pack of ours on Rainier for the snack bars within but discarded the radio (probably only due to the lack of an opposable thumb with which to operate it).
I've also heard that Ravens regularly poach lunches out of the underseat compartments on snomos in Yellowstone Park.
Industrious creatures, them Ravens.

National Geographic had an article on Ravens a few years back and there were pictures of them opening the compartments on the snowmobiles and stealing the food. I wonder which are better at stealing food, Ravens or the bears in Yosemite?

The kia birds (a parrot not indigenous..?)  of New Zealand are equally as bad...they love vinyl and rubber ...and packs, and tires, and etc....