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Articles

Vol. 44 No. 2 (2013)

HUMAN FOOD SUBSIDIES AND COMMON RAVEN OCCURRENCE IN YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, CALIFORNIA

DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21199/WB44.2.4
Submitted
November 19, 2025
Published
April 1, 2013

Abstract

We examined the influence of the availability of human food on the distribution and foraging habits of the Common Raven (Corvus corax), in Yosemite National Park, California. The raven arrived and established itself as a year-round resident in Yosemite in the 1960s, and its population has been increasing ever since. Surveys of nine sites with varying levels of human influence in Yosemite suggest that the Common Raven is most densely distributed in human-influenced regions, especially Yosemite Valley. It is largely absent from Yosemite’s Badger Pass Ski Area in the off-season but uses the site as an anthropogenic food source and becomes more available during the ski season. At Badger Pass and four recreational destinations ravens track the availability of human food temporally, preferably foraging before or after human mealtimes.

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