By Charlie Carey
A feathered friend or a thieving foe? A resident raven at Cypress Mountain Resort is causing a stir online after being caught on camera unzipping a skier’s backpack before flying off with its contents recently.
Shared on the ‘Hiking British Columbia’ Facebook group by Turguy Tugayli on Dec. 29, the 16-second video shows the super-intelligent bird calmly going about its business, in a sea of piled-up backpacks next to the top of Lions Express chairlift.
“It was almost like an inspection. He went to check a couple bags,” Tugayli said.
“And I’m like, ‘This bird is up to something here.’ I was actually shocked at how smart he was. He tried pulling the zippers up, and then when I started recording, by then the zipper was already open.”
Tugayli said he was “not expecting the bird to actually steal such a big bag and fly out.
“I guess I could have intervened, but I had like a second, this all happened in like 15 seconds.”
Confirming that it would indeed be a raven and not a crow, Cypress sales and marketing director Joffrey Koeman said they have heard of a lot of stories of this happening – most notably during the Vancouver Olympics.
“We have a ton of ravens on the mountain and they are all very smart!”
During the ongoing pandemic it appears the rules at Cypress are: Keep calm, wash your hands – and apparently – watch out for ravens.
READ MORE: Discover the wildlife jewel of the central Island
READ MORE: VIDEO: Alberta man rescues baby eagle believed to be drowning in East Kootenay lake
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