Kolkrabe Basel-Landschaft

The common raven inhabits a wide range of landscapes, from high mountains and extensive forests to open and semi-open country. Characteristic is its very large space requirement: a pair's breeding and roaming territory can reach up to 5,000 hectares. It is recognisable by its sheer size, deep call, shaggy throat feathers and powerful bill, which clearly distinguish it from the smaller carrion crow.

Across much of Central and Western Europe the raven was almost wiped out through systematic persecution, reaching its lowest point around 1940. In Germany only remnant populations survived in the Alpine region and in Schleswig-Holstein. Since the 1960s, reduced persecution and dedicated reintroduction projects have allowed the species to recolonise numerous federal states, and it remains in an expansion phase.

With the raven's return, conflicts with grazing livestock and in particular with shepherds have become a topic again. Studies indicate that documented damage is usually linked to attractive food sources such as afterbirths, carcasses or weakened animals. As a European bird species the raven is strictly protected and benefits from a year-round closed season. It is not hunted in Germany.