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Hop in a golf cart, take a ride through the woods, past the old elephant habitat and horse stables, up to a glade, where you see a small cabin encircled by cages. There you’ll find Baltimore’s ravens.
Not to be confused with the AFC’s top-seeded team, which boasts seven Pro Bowlers and the MVP favorite. The actual birds.
Rise and Conquer, a pair of common ravens who were brought to Baltimore from Alabama as clutch mates in 2009, are among the 60 or so residents of the Maryland Zoo’s Animal Embassy. These 14-year-old brothers used to travel to M&T Bank Stadium on game days and team-sponsored events year round until 2020, when a series of unfortunate events kept them out of action.
First, COVID hit, limiting the birds’ travel and human interaction (The zoo has been vaccinating some of its animals against COVID since 2021). Then, cases of bird flu were confirmed in Maryland.
Though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention consider their risk to humans to be very low, avian influenza viruses are extremely contagious and deadly among birds, to the point that entire flocks have been culled to prevent the spread. In March 2022, the CDC confirmed four outbreaks in Maryland: three in Cecil County and one in Queen Anne’s County.
The Maryland Zoo, which houses 40 kinds of birds (including endangered African penguins), closed its aviaries to the public until the case numbers went down.
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“We have to protect all of our birds regardless of their conservation status,” said Mike Evitts, the zoo’s senior director of communications. “So we work with the state veterinarian and the state officials to make sure that we have very strict protocol that are relative to our region in Maryland.”
Bird flu cases have gone down in the state over the last year. According to the CDC, there was just one confirmed outbreak in 2023. But the zoo is still taking precautions. Just a visit to the Animal Embassy requires the completion of a bird exposure survey and the application of a disinfectant spray to the soles of your shoes.
Rise and Conquer are cleared to resume their ambassadorship. But, after years out of the spotlight, they’re hesitant to leave the embassy and interact with the public.
“Ravens are historically scared of new things,” Jenny Egan, an area manager at the Animal Embassy, explained over Conquer’s caws. “And that’s a raven thing, not just a Rise and Conquer thing.”
As an accredited member of the Association of Zoos & Aquariums, the Maryland Zoo is constantly updating and revising its policies to ensure they meet the organization’s standards of welfare, care and management. Through literature and training, the AZA stresses the importance of the animals’ well-being. As such, the birds’ keepers won’t force them to participate in any activities they don’t want to.
“Everything that we do here at the zoo is typically voluntary,” Egan said. “So basically asking an animal to kennel. If they don’t, they still get all their diet, they still do all the things. It’s kind of up to them what they do.”
Even without embarking on off-site adventures, Rise and Conquer have full schedules. Ravens are intelligent animals and require mental stimulation and enrichment programs.
“Because ravens are as smart as they are, we have to get creative constantly,” Egan said. “Trying to figure enrichment items that will make them think, that will make them pull to open a drawer to get the food or to be able to even, they can use tools, like a stick, to grab something or to move things.”
A member of the corvid family that also includes the crow, the raven was chosen as the team’s mascot through a telephone survey conducted by The Baltimore Sun in 1996. Aside from the obvious Edgar Allan Poe connection, the bird was chosen, in part, because of its intimidating characteristics.
“They’re fearsome,” Evitts said. “They’re unafraid. In the poem, they’re also a symbol of death and doom, which is sort of something we like to project to our opponents.”
Now that the team is soaring, could fans see Rise and Conquer at M&T Bank Stadium?
“We will let them tell us when they’re ready,” Egan said.
In the meantime, the zoo has kept its spot along Ravens Walk before home games, showcasing other animal ambassadors, and hopes to have a setup prior to Baltimore’s AFC divisional round game, weather permitting.
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Audience engagement editor, sports, at The Baltimore Banner.
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