VIDEO | World Cassowary Day marked by two very special chicks
ENVIRONMENT
In celebrating the fourth year of World Cassowary Day, the Department of Environment and Science is hailing this as a special day for two juvenile cassowaries, who were rescued by wildlife officers.
According to the department’s Dr Matt Brien, the juvenile cassowaries were rescued from the wild and without the care of wildlife officers, they would not have survived.
“One cassowary chick, estimated to be 10 months old, was found alone and abandoned as a small chick in an urban environment in December last year.
“We tried to locate the chick’s father, hoping to reunite the pair, but were unsuccessful.
“The other bird, estimated to be nine months old, was taken into care in April suffering from severe physical injuries and has required ongoing veterinary care,” said Dr Brien.
He said the birds have completed the first phase of their rehabilitation at the department’s Garner’s Beach Cassowary Rehabilitation Facility.
“The facility is operated by the not-for-profit organisation Rainforest Reserves Australia and local conservation group, C4, helped feed and care for the animals.”
Dr Brien said the cassowaries have been transferred to the privately operated Tablelands Rehabilitation Facility, near Lake Barrine.
“The Tablelands facility has a large, isolated forested area where the birds will complete the final phase of their rehabilitation program.
“They can practice the skills needed to forage for their own food, before being released into the rainforest later this year.
“Their eventual release will mean ten cassowaries have been rescued, rehabilitated released back into the wild by the department since 2017.”
This is also a great day to celebrate the existence and important ecological role played by one of Queensland’s most unique native animals.
The southern cassowary is a huge flightless bird with tiny spiky wings, large dinosaur-like feet, a vivid blue neck with dangling red wattles, black fur-like feathers and a helmet-like ‘casque’ on its head.
Cassowaries living in Queensland’s World Heritage-listed, Wet Tropics rainforest, play a vital role as ‘rainforest gardeners’ – helping to distribute and propagate the seeds of hundreds of species of native plants.
The Queensland Government has allocated more than $1.5 million for cassowary rehabilitation and conservation in the past three years. DES also manages national parks in the Wet Tropics, protecting important cassowary habitat.
The department provides a 1300 130 372 phone service and three full-time cassowary wildlife officers, based in Innisfail, who deliver a frontline response for critical incidents involving sick and injured cassowaries.
Fast facts:
- Modern-day cassowaries are thought to have evolved from animals that lived on the super-continent Gondwana about 180 million years ago
- There is an estimated 4400 cassowaries in the wild
- The major threats to cassowaries include the loss of habitat, vehicle strikes, and dog attacks.
- Cassowaries are the world’s second heaviest bird
- They can leap about 190cm off the ground to get at rainforest fruit
- Their diet consists of native fruit, fungi, rodents, snails and lizards
- Once the female lays the eggs, she abandons the nest and rearing the chicks is the father’s job
- Cassowaries can live for decades in captivity, with some celebrating their 40th birthdays
- Southern Cassowaries are listed as endangered under the Nature Conservation Act 1992 (NC Act) in the Wet Tropics region.
For more information visit the World Cassowary Day website.
Watch the video of the birds being released here:
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