White Feathered Phenomenon Needs Protection from Ordinary Relatives

In its figurative meaning in Ukrainian, the white raven stands for an undiscovered genius, the talk of the town, a troublemaker, an almost unreal image. However, there are not many places in the world where you can see a white raven or rara avis in its original meaning in the flesh. One of them is the Kyiv Zoo where white crows called Liusia and Pasha have been residents for five years now. Since they are so rare, to see these white winged creatures is a good omen sure to bring luck. For those wishing to test this belief, Liusia and Pasha are in the zoo’s birds section all year round. The birds can be called lucky ones, as albino nestlings are typically pecked to death by their siblings. But our pair survived. Liusia was brought from Rivne by a poultry farmhand and blood-stained Pasha was found by a warmhearted woman under a tree in Darnytsia.

Now the birds have their own home and friends, for they share their cage home with magpies and jackdaws. Zookeeper Oleksandr Shkrabaliuk says the birds get along quite well, as there is no competition for food or spouses in the zoo. Resembling ordinary crows in temper, white ravens are more courageous and belligerent. Just like people, the awareness of one’s being unusual engenders a protective reaction manifested in the white ravens occasionally showing other birds their place. Very business minded, Liusia and Pasha never miss a chance to put away some easy food for a rainy day. Our team’s photographer learned the bird’s ways the hard way, forced to carefully shield his camera lenses from the birds’ beaks.

Liusia is the protector in the family since Pasha is completely blind. Before taking him to the zoo, the people who had found him kept him on the balcony in their apartment and the albino bird’s sensitive pink eyes were scorched by the blazing sun. Mother nature exposes its exotic species to many challenges. But Pasha is by no means helpless, finding his way around the cage by touch and even recovering a piece of cheese Liusia had taken away from him. The female, although not above pinching a tidbit from Pasha, seems to take care of him. Once, Mr. Shkrabaliuk recalls, when Pasha escaped from the cage through a crack unintentionally left by a rookie keeper, Liusia showed him the way home by loud cawing.

The couple still has no hatchlings. Even when they come, they are most likely to be ordinary black crows. The gene for albinism is a recessive one, and under the law of genetics only every fourth offspring can have snow white wings, and exotic parents typically have ordinary children. This might be a fair arrangement, at least in the sense that exotic things should be rare to be viewed as miracles.