Today we have three photos of a Southern Cassowary by Scott Ritchie, who hails from Australia. Scott’s caption is indented, and you can enlarge his photos by clicking on them.
Here are a few photos of a Southern Cassowary[Casuarius casuarius] that I took in the last month at Mission Beach, Queensland. They are truly an iconic bird and our evidence the dinosaur still lives. They have actually killed people, although this is very rare. But it has happened. They have a huge dagger-like inner toe. That’s about 6 inches long that when it kicks out at you can eviscerate you. Not a pleasant way to go.
JAC: Here’s a picture of its “dagger toe” that I took from Wikipedia:
Awesome close up on the last one
That’s one pugnacious looking bird.
What a beautiful and unique bird!
Thanks, Scott, for some lovely pictures.
The Wiki link has some interesting info. I was struck by the rather large difference in weights of the sexes – females almost twice the weight (~130 lb avg) of males (~70 lb avg). There’s also a picture of the “dagger toe.”
I’ve added that photo of the “dagger toe” to the post.
Thanks mate. He was only 10 m away.
Spectacular!
Read my ecologist friend Andy Mack’s book, Searching for Pek Pek, about his field studies in Papua New Guinea where he worked to prove that the seeds of a certain tree required passage thru the digestive tract of a cassowary.
Bonus: PNG is apparently overrun with missionaries, and from the book you also learn about how they behave. Airplanes from rival sects are not welcome to land at each other’s airstrips or use each other’s radio frequencies.
Were these shot in the wild on the beach, or were they enclosed? I’m wondering how close you got to it. I’m pretty sure my heart would race a little! (At least that’s my reaction to alligators and snakes.)
They were taken along Garners Bay Rd, near Mission Beach, Queensland. In the wild. He was right beside the road, 5-10 m away. They are pretty chilled, and used to people.
Other than enraged geese, Cassowaries are the only birds I would be afraid of.
That’s one scary dinosaur!
Excellent!
Cassowaries were always the peak moment of my childhood visits to the zoo in Oz. They’re cooler than emus, better colored and waaay better armed. And angrier. They are the most charismatic birds which often look like they’re saying “Want a piece of me, bitch? We’ll do ya?!” Menacing. Beautiful.
They’ve injured lots of people but from memory the last death was in 1932. We didn’t have them in Melbourne but QLD does and New Guinea (never short of mind-stopping horrors of all types) has a bigger population of them. The PNG tribes up there regularly eat them.
D.A.
NYC
A guy who kept a menagerie of wild animals on hyis property near Gainesville Florida was killed by one a few years ago.
I love the photos. The toes look powerful. Mean left and right punch.
Very beautiful photos, thanks!
Great photos. Thanks!
I recall driving around the Atherton Tableland in north Queensland some years ago and there was a lake beside which a large cassowary would approach parked cars expecting handouts. He came right up to my rolled-up window and I did NOT get out of the car! He was a bit of a tourist attraction for awhile, until sadly he was struck and killed by a speeding car.
Very sad. Probably Lake Barrine. Car hits are a killer for them. And dogs.
Yes that was the lake – Barrine.
I would think an adult cassowary could make mincement of dogs.
One wonders why the born-in-the-wrong-body community has not yet included individuals who identify as trans-cassowary. Maybe that is a role I should explore, once I find an MD ready to provide affirmation, when suitably compensated.