The Cassowary – Capucine

Cassowaries are very big dinosaur birds and I learned all about them when I visited the Daintree Rainforest Discovery Centre.

The female Cassowaries are 1.8 metres high and 60 kgs and they live in rainforests in Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and North East Australia. They can run so fast, up to 50 km/h and they jump 1.5 metres high and they are very good swimmers. They live until they are 40 or 50 years old.

The Cassowaries look like a giant turkey or a colourful ostrich and they have a large boney crest like horn on their heads, a fleshy red and blue neck, two long red fleshy wattles on their chest, dark featherrs like long hair on their bodies, long strong legs, three toes with sharp claws. They are very shy but  they can be very dangerous when they are scared as they have very powerful legs with sharp claws and can kick very hard.

They eat 99% fruits and they eat the whole fruit which is very good for nature because when they poo it out the seeds go into the floor and grow into a fruit tree. Their favourite is the Cassowary plum which looks like a giant blue plum that is poisonous to anyone else.

The Cassowary is slowly dying in Australia and only 1 out of 4 are still alive because sometime they  loose their habitat because of humans or cyclones or cars run over them or dogs attack them.

I really enjoyed learning about the Cassowary and what they eat and like and where they live and the fact that they are the only ones being able to eat the poisonous plum and I like that they have beautiful blues and reds on their body and their lovely feathers.

Love, Capucine X