Like a forgotten dinosaur, the massive and primitive bird called the Cassowary stalks its hidden paths through the rainforest. For millions of years this creature has been master of its domain, changing the very face of the rainforest that it calls home. Now, the cassowary is endangered by humans and feral animals.

Fast Facts

The cassowary...

• Is the world's third largest bird, after the ostrich and the emu, and is in the same family.
  
• Lives in tropical forests in New Guinea and coastal North Eastern Australia.
  
• Is easily identified by its brightly coloured head and neck, and by the huge "horn" on its head.
  
• Females are dominant, and are larger and heavier than the males. It is the father cassowary alone that raises the chicks.
  
• Can reach two metres in height and weigh up to 85 kilograms. A bird in the wild may live for sixty years.
  
• Is extremely solitary and territorial, but birds will form into groups when food is scarce.
  
• Is a Fructivore, a fruit eater. It may eat just about anything when very hungry, however.
  
• Is an endangered species, there are less than 1500 left in Australia, and it is in steady decline.
  
• Population is decreasing, but cassowaries increasingly come into contact with humans as we invade their natural habitat.
  
• Is threatened by feral pigs, feral and pet dogs, and humans.
  
• Is far less dangerous than it is portrayed to be, but can definitely kill a man with its sharp kicking claws.
  
• Is most likely to die as the result of a road accident.
  
• Is almost solely responsible forseed dispersal and even germination of an estimated 70-100 species of plant. If the Cassowary became extinct, it would also destroy much of the rainforest ecology.
  

Physical Features

The Cassowary is a type very primitive bird, called a Ratite. It shares this family with the two other largest birds alive today, the emus and ostriches, as well as the tiny kiwi. Cassowaries look like living dinosaurs, from their dagger toes to the tip of their massive "horn". They are also very visually impressive, their feathered bodies are a glossy black, their necks are a deep blue, and they have bright red wattles, like those of a rooster, hanging from low on the neck. There are four species of cassowary, three of which live in New Guinea. Australia shares with New Guinea the Single Wattled Cassowary (Casuarius casuarius), and also has the Southern or Double Wattled Cassowary (Casuarius casuarius Johnsonii). There is very little obvious difference between the male and female Cassowary. The female is dominant, and therefore larger, up to twice the body mass, her wattle is brighter, and she lacks the stubby tail of males. What follows is a description of the Cassowary from toe to tip, which will hopefully remove many misconceptions about the bird.

Most people will remember the Raptors from the Jurassic Park movie, and the way they launched themselves into the air feet first to slice at their prey with their dagger claws. This attack method is exactly the way in which Cassowaries attack, and no doubt Spielberg was inspired by these birds. The Cassowary's foot can be up to 18 cm long, with its middle toe making up 12 cm of this length. The three toes all point forward, the middle, "dagger" toe being the longest and sharpest. The foot and leg are not well suited to swift running like the Cassowary's larger cousins. It should be pointed out here that Cassowaries are NOT velociraptors, they are not savage or bloodthirsty, and they are usually quite timid. Males are aggressive toward others when defending their young chicks, as are most animals caring for their young, but unless their normal habits are disrupted they are not an aggressive animal and should be feared no more than any other wild animal of similar size.

Cassowary feathers are not smooth and flat, since they do not fly. Each vein on the feather hangs loose, creating a "hairy" coat that is perfect for pushing through the thorn riddled rainforest undergrowth. The feathers also have after shafts, a second feather grows from the base of the first, making each feather double. This feature is shared by some songbirds and pheasants, it makes the coat thicker and better suited to undergrowth.

The digestive tract has no gizzard, unusual for a bird, so it can only digest the soft flesh of fruit, leaving the seeds unscathed. This provides a natural method of farming, the seeds of the Cassowary's favourite fruit trees get deposited in their own fertilizer along the bird's walking tracks, and about a decade later, there is a greater source of fruit along the bird's track. Over one hundred types of plant depend on Cassowaries to spread their seed, and many have even evolved to only start growing after passing through a Cassowary's gut.

The wings of a Cassowary are stubby and nearly invisible, being six long quills that curve around either side of the body. They are used partly for balance and mainly for protecting the body as the bird moves through the dense undergrowth.

As stated above, the Cassowary's neck is a brilliant blue colour, grading in to bright red at the nape and white at the head. The wattle is also bright red, brighter in females. When the Cassowary is excited, blood flow increases to the skin and the coloration becomes more vivid. This acts as a warning sign to other animals that the bird is not in a good mood. Cassowaries can make a variety of noises, mainly as warnings and threats. Some Cassowary noises can be described as hissing, growling and booming, and are accompanied with visual displays such as trembling, slightly inflating the neck and scratching at the ground.

Finally, the most prominent feature of the Cassowary, the casque. The casque is the "horn" on the Cassowary's head that gives it such a dinosaurish appearance. There is even more misunderstanding about this than the bird's supposed aggression. Even the bird's name is from a Papuan Dialect, Kasu Weri or Horned Head. It is not an actual horn, nor is it bone. It does not grow directly from the skull. It is in fact a foamy material similar in structure and elasticity to styrofoam, covered in hard leathery skin. It is rigid long ways, but is fairly elastic side on. Every bird's casque is different, with bends, grooves and marks making identification of individuals easier.

While it is not known for certain what the casque's purpose is, it is definitely useless as a weapon and has never been witnessed getting used as one. It is also not, as one web page on the subject stated, used as a shovel. Some believe that it is used as a "crash helmet", and its construction would suit the purpose of ramming through vines and protecting from collisions with trees in the dark, but the fact that they do not grow until the bird is near adult, while they would have a greater need earlier in life makes some experts less sure. Others believe that the casque is a symbol of age and therefore dominance, or a means of intimidation. The answer probably falls somewhere in between.

Life Cycle

Cassowary eggs are laid around the month of June, in a "nest" made by scratching the ground and lining the shallow depression with grasses, leaves and ferns. Usually three to five eggs are laid. The eggs weigh around 500 grams and are pale green. Soon after laying, the female leaves, free to mate again. The eggs incubate for around 50 days, in this time the father rarely moves from the nest except for the occasional drink of water. He turns and moves the eggs constantly in this time, to ensure that all the eggs are incubated evenly.
The eggs hatch between July and September, when the rainforest is producing the most fruit. The hatchlings look a lot like the hatchlings of their cousins, the Emus. They are striped black and cream, and their heads are a pale brown. They have tiny wattles, but the Cassowary's main feature, the casque, is missing. The father is extremely protective of his chicks and is at his most aggressive at this time. If the chicks get frightened, they will hide under their father's stubby tail.

The chicks' stripes start to fade when they are around five months of age, as they become too large to look like a patch of sunlight shining on to the forest floor through the leaves. During this time, there is plentiful food for the birds, and they build up reserves of fat for when the fruiting season ends in the rainforest around January. At about seven months, the chicks begin to get the distinctive blue colour on their necks. Between January and March is a hard time for the chicks. Cyclones and monsoonal rains batter them constantly in the early months, and food is very difficult to find. Cassowaries at this time will eat just about anything, including insects, fish, mice, dirt and even their own droppings.

By May, things are still tough for the young Cassowaries. They still do not have their casque, but they do have a bald spot where it will grow. Their stripes will have almost completely faded into a dull brown by now, and their wattles are small in comparison to those of adults. The fathers at this time begin to drive their young away because of the coming mating season. By June, practically all of the chicks will be forced to look after themselves as the fathers begin their nesting. This is a dangerous time for the chicks, as they are no longer protected, and there are potentially aggressive females in the area competing for food. Many juvenile chicks die at this time, but those that survive can get all the food they need after July, even with the fathers feeding the next generation. The chicks become solitary, and find their own territories.

It may take another year before the birds begin to grow their casque, and another year after that until their brown feathers become the glossy black of the adult Cassowary. When fully grown, they can be up to 2 metres tall, but usually are about 1.5m tall. The males weigh about 35 kilograms. The females, who are dominant, weigh about 60 kilograms. The heaviest recorded bird was 85 kilograms, making it the largest native Australian land animal. This is especially impressive when you remember that all birds were originally designed to fly, with lightweight characteristics such as hollow bones, so weigh far less than a mammal of similar size. The now fully grown bird can now look forward to living up to forty years, and there are unconfirmed reports of Cassowaries living up to the age of 60 in the wild.

Cassowary in Danger

Although they have survived for millions of years, through Ice Ages and great cataclysms, a recent survey suggested that there are less than 1500 Cassowaries left in this country, and the numbers are steadily declining. Up to 100 species of plant depend almost entirely on Cassowaries to disperse their seeds, and many germinate only after passing through the gut of a Cassowary. If the Cassowary were to die out, so would many of these tree and plant species, and the animals that depend on them as food or shelter, and then the animals that predate upon those animals and so on. A large section of the rainforest ecology would be thrown into chaos by the death of the Cassowary.
The main cause of the cassowary's decline is of course Human Beings. Before the arrival of the aboriginees, the Cassowary reigned supreme in the jungles. When aboriginees came to the rainforest, they learned that Cassowaries liked to stick to the same paths that linked their feeding trees every day. By using some fruit as bait and waiting along the path, they could get an easy meal for the whole tribe. Aboriginees also burnt the forest to make hunting easier. However, Aboriginees and the Cassowary managed to coexist for many thousands of years.

While Captain James Cook was repairing his ship, the Endeavour, near what is now Cooktown in North Queensland, Australia, some pigs he had brought with him escaped. It is thought that these became the country's first feral pigs, which would become a major problem up to the present day. Feral pigs disturb nesting Cassowaries and will eat both the eggs and the chicks if given a chance, but the biggest problem is that pigs compete with the Cassowaries for food. However, seeds digest far better in a pig's gut than in a Cassowary's, and few new plants are propagated by pigs. They also destroy the rainforest by rooting, further reducing food and clean water for Cassowaries.

By the 1800's, humans were beginning to encroach on the Cassowary's habitat. They came for the timber, or for gold and other valuables, or simply for the land. Huge tracts of rainforest fell and continue to fall. With humans also came dogs. One on one, an adult Cassowary can drive off or even kill a dog, but would sooner run away, leaving behind much needed food. Dogs also hunt in packs (even pet dogs), and no Cassowary can defend against an entire pack of dogs.

The worst threat to Cassowaries is us. Cassowaries are shot each year. Some by overzealous farmers who believe that the Cassowaries are going to destroy their fruit crop, some by people frightened by the large and imposing birds, and there are always sick idiots who will kill a Cassowary for fun. However, by far the most Cassowaries that die each year are hit by cars. This is partly because of the roads that cut through their feeding grounds and so are unavoidable even if they understood cars. Cassowaries are also killed by kindness. People can't resist throwing food for the impressive creatures, and so they learn to associate free food with either humans or the cars that they sit in. Once a Cassowary has learnt this unnatural pattern, it can become very demanding, and will hang around roads, often charging at the food source. If the food source is a fast moving car, this will most likely be fatal for the bird. Cassowaries do not handle injuries well - an injured bird is probably a dead bird.

It is this association with food that also brings Cassowaries closer to humans. There was a famous Cassowary that lived on Mt. Whitfield, which over the past few years has seen the city of Cairns spread around and up it like a rising tide. The bird was called Blue Arrow, and was the last of a population of Cassowaries to live on Mt. Whitfield. There is a popular walking track up the mountain, and Blue Arrow soon linked people and food together. She would run at joggers, and occasionally become aggressive if she did not get fed. Blue Arrow found her way in time to the bottom of the mountain, to where there were more people, and she was killed by two pet dogs late in 1996. There are no more Cassowaries on Mt Whitfield. Another Cassowary, Henry, developed a similar pattern around Lake Barrine, on the Atherton Tablelands. He had the habit of charging at cars, and eventually had his foot crushed by one in 1999 and had to be put down. He was a favourite with locals and tourists, which of course was the whole reason he died. It is very hard to resist throwing food to the Cassowaries, but if they are to survive they must be left as wild animals and admired from a distance.

One problem that Cassowaries face is their reputation of being aggressive. This reputation is not entirely unfounded, a new father will become extremely aggressive toward anything it perceives as a threat, and Cassowaries have fearsome weapons on their feet. The fact is, however, that there have been few humans killed in New Guinea and only one recorded in Australia. This was in 1926, when a 16 year old boy had been provoking the Cassowary. Once their normal patterns have been disrupted by feeding or destruction of their environment, it is possible for the bird to become more aggressive. Nobody is scared when they shake a cup of grain and chickens come charging toward them, but Cassowaries are much larger, so when they exhibit the same behaviour people think that they are getting attacked. It does not help when some Cassowaries do actually attack if they think that they are getting cheated out of a meal. It should be remembered, though, that most Cassowaries would much sooner run into the forest before they were seen.

What we are doing to save the Cassowary

One of the main things that Kuranda Envirocare is doing to help the Cassowary is the planting of the EnviroLink Corridor. This corridor of native forest allows small numbers of Cassowaries to pass safely by cultivated land through stands of native forest. This means that the territories of the birds are broadened, and allows the cross breeding of birds from different areas, important for genetic diversity and the future survival of the Cassowary. The trees in the corridor also contain many fruiting species that will provide extra food for the Cassowaries.

Kuranda Envirocare has been instrumental in the placing of warning signs in areas such as Black Mountain Road and sections of the the busy Kuranda Range Road, which have both seen bird fatalities caused by cars. The bird can be hard to see because of it's ideal camouflage, and the many tourists that visit the area may be unaware that the bird is a danger. The signs are also favourites with tourists; for them they are exotic and a taste of the tropical north.

We are involved in educating people about the Cassowary. Locals and visitors alike need to be informed about this often misunderstood creature. We try to stop people from feeding Cassowaries. While we have planted many Cassowary food plants in the Envirolink Corridor, we do not know the long term effect of these trees. Will they encourage Cassowaries to move more freely across their traditional landscape, as we hope, or will they lure the last of these big birds to a closer proximity with humans and dogs, and even to their deaths? It is a sad truth that there are no easy answers.

Kuranda EnviroCare founder and past co-ordinator, Jax Bergersen, has appeared on respected Australian science show, Quantum, in a story about Cassowaries, and has been contacted by ABC's Radio National radio programme for information on Cassowaries and how they relate to our growing population. We feel that by getting as much information as possible about the bird to people, we increase the chance of saving it.

Now that climate change has emerged as an even more potent threat to wildlife, we need as many people as possible to take action to encourage governments around the world to respond quickly and effectively to this newly recognised threat - anything less, and the Cassowary, together with many of the amazing animals and birds of tropical North Queensland, will no longer be seen in the forest.

Bibliography

Tropical Topics-A compilation. Cassowary publications, Queensland Wet Tropics Management Authority

Cassowaries in theWet Tropics World Heritage Area (pamphlet). Environmental Health Services, Mareeba Shire Council

Australian Tropical Birds.Clifford & Dawn Frith, Frith and Frith Books.

Queensland Museum Web Site.www.qmuseum.qld.gov.au