The Cassowary

One thing I find hard to come to grips with about Tropical Queensland is the crocs - and if the crocs don't get you, then the snakes will - and if its not the snakes then it will be the stingers or the spiders or the cassowaries or ...... you get the drift.


The Daintree rainforest is a critical habitat and a 'hot spot' for the Southern Cassowary which is classified as an endangered species.
Never feed a cassowary, it puts other visitors at risk. Cassowaries can be very dangerous, especially if "you don't come up with the goods", and it puts the cassowary at risk at well. Besides, it's illegal.

The main road to Cape Tribulation area cuts through the home ranges of at least four different birds. These locations are marked by cassowary signs.
When you see the cassowary road sign SLOW DOWN. You don't want to spoil your holiday by killing an endangered animal. Vehicle traffic is the number one cause of adult cassowary deaths.

SOME FACTS ABOUT CASSOWARIES
The Southern Cassowary is so named because it also occurs on the Southern slopes of New Guinea's mountains. Cassowaries are probably best known as fruit eaters, but they will eat just about anything, including small birds, insects and rodents. They are also intensely curious, but sadly not very bright, which can lead to some rather unfortunate incidents.

Cassowaries can grow up to two metres tall and weight 85 kilograms. But apart from their size, they also have a formidable dagger-like claw on each foot, and can run up to 50 km/hr. They have a striking blue head with bright red wattles, and a glossy black coat.

The elongated structure on top of the cassowary’s skull, called a casque, is filled with a network of very thin bone. The reason that cassowaries evolved casques is still debated, but the protruding structures may help them poke through the dense vegetation of their rainforest habitat without hurting their heads. You can see a great skull photo which rotates at the California Academy of Science web site

For more information visit the Cassowary Husbandry Workshop for absolutely everything you ever wanted to know about captive cassowaries. Focuses on the Southern Cassowary.