The Queen raven at the Tower of London has been missing for weeks.
It’s no longer 2020 but that doesn’t mean the bad news has stopped flooding in. Merlina, ‘the Queen of the Tower Ravens’, has been leading the flock at the Tower of London ever since she arrived in 2007. Unfortunately, she has been missing for several weeks and the staff are beginning to lose hope that she is still alive. I’m not crying, you are…
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A spokesman for the Tower said “Our much-loved raven Merlina has not been seen at the Tower for several weeks, and her continued absence indicates to us that she may have sadly passed away. Though it isn’t unusual for our ravens to roam outside the walls, free-spirited Merlina has previously always returned. Merlina was our undisputed ruler of the roost, Queen of the Tower Ravens. She will be greatly missed by her fellow ravens, the ravenmaster, and all of us in the Tower community.”
The fortress, like many other tourist attractions, had to close for several months during the first lockdown. The Tower usually welcomes over two million visitors each year and the absence of visitors greatly affected the ravens. The Tower community were greatly concerned that the birds would fly away due to boredom or a lack of company. We have now entered a third national lockdown and it seems as though this may have played a role in Merlina’s disappearance.
The staff have revealed that they have no plans to replace Merlina in the near future as there are still seven ravens on site, although they “hope that a new chick from [the] breeding programme will be up to the formidable challenge of continuing her legacy.”