Northern Cassowary

## About

A northern cassowary

The northern cassowary ***(Casuarius unappendiculatus)*** is a Ratite native to central and northern Papua New Guinea. Northern cassowaries have a strong black plumage all throughout their bodies, as well as striking blue bare skin on their neck and head as well as a casque on top of their heads. They also present a bright red and yellow colouration on their lower neck/ wattle. A northern cassowary's feet are large and dangerous as they possess extremely sharp claws or talons, particularly their middle toe which can especially cause damage to other species or other male cassowaries. The northern cassowary is the second largest cassowary species standing at around 1.8m tall (about 69in) and weighing 82lbs (about 37kg). The northern cassowary lives in densely forested regions and it can often be a struggle trying to navigate through the trees and dense foliage. According to Mongabay the casque on the cassowary's head is not only used for mating but also for for making low frequency sounds referred to as "blooming." The female cassowary's share large territories with males alone until breeding season. These large territories have lots of lots of the fruits they need for food and animals to help run their ecosystem.

## Diet

The northern cassowary lives off a diet that primarily consists of various types of fruits like native berries and other sources of fruit nutrition. Their diet is also balanced out with small animals such as mice, rats, frogs, snakes, lizards, smaller birds and a wide range of insects and snails. Overall the northern cassowary is like other Ratites, an omnivore. Because they are also omnivorous, these birds can often be found resorting to scavenging carrion when looking for food. It has also been examined by BirdFact that the northern cassowary eats fruits that come from around 238 plant species. Because of their vast diet, the northern cassowary plays a vital role in its ecosystem and has a very important ecological niche. This is because of the northern cassowary's ability to transfer the seeds from the fruit they eat all through their body. This results in the seeds coming out in their excrement creating a fertiliser for the seeds to grow and create more trees to support the ecosystem.

## Conservation Status

The northern cassowaries current conservation status is set as Least concern with a decreasing population listed by the IUCN. Some of the reasons as to why this species has a decreasing population trend is the fact that these cassowaries are hunted in areas that are more densely populated with humans. Other causes is the fact that the cassowary's feathers have been seen by people as a great source of self decor for humans which leads to the hunting of cassowaries to obtain this. Away from the issues surrounding hunting, the northern cassowary's current biggest threat is the growing concern for habitat loss in the densely forested regions that they live in. The leading contributor to habitat loss is logging to make way for roads to be constructed to pass through forested regions. The immense numbers of trees that are cut down often leads to cassowaries, particularly males loosing their territories and causing conflict. This relates also to agriculture as the areas they live in are often surrounding by both agriculture an aquaculture which can cause ecological stress. However, efforts have been made in Papua New Guinea to try and prevent logging as much as possible by attempting to push the loggers into areas that will not damage the ecosystem. There has also been countless of surveys done to asses the quantity affects of logging and alert the local communities and people with in the areas to prevent logging and wood harvesting.

## Range and Population

According to the IUCN the current population of the northern cassowary stands at around 10,000 - 20,000 mature individuals. The northern cassowary is native to Indonesia in regions like Irian and Jaya, though the population of the cassowaries spreads through northern Papua New Guinea. The northern cassowary spreads from the Salewati island to the Ramu lowlands occupying lowland forested regions. Though they are also known to inhabit swamp forest like areas working as a local seed distributor. Predominately the main region the occupy are certainly sub-tropical regions across these two countries.

## Behaviour

Much like other cassowaries the behaviour of the northern cassowary is a lot like that of other large ratites in the sense that they are often docile, solitary birds, though BeautyOfBirds explains that they can be extremely hostile when feeling threatened. As well as being known on occasion to attack the northern cassowary is known to make a low pitch dinosaur like grunting and hissing sound often used for intimidation or mating. During breeding season the northern cassowary females will lay her eggs in nest prepared by the male followed by her leaving the eggs to go an mate with another male. The male then raises the chicks alone for around nine months. A peculiar fact about the birds is that the young have been observed to eat the feces of the males raising them, as stated by iNaturalListAU. Many a time the males may also eat their own feces as occasionally it may contain undigested fruits.

### Relationship with Humans

It is well known that cassowaries are often labelled as the worlds most dangerous bird likely due to their cunning ability to inflict serious injuries on either humans or any other species at any given time. The northern cassowary is packed with incredibly lethal feet with dagger like toe claws measuring up to 12 cm ( 5 in ). This means that if a cassowary feels threatened they are very prone to leap out and attack people with their giant talons targeting their vital organs leading to very lethal or even fatal wounds. Away from the cassowaries danger towards humans, the birds are often seen as great exotic animals that humans can come visit in wildlife reserves and national parks. Northern cassowaries are also seen as a great contributor to various types of seed plantation in the territory in which they occupy and or human populated regions.

## In Captivity

Referring back to ZOOINSTITUTES the northern cassowary can only be currently found in two zoos in the cities of Phuket and Khao Kheow in Thailand and three zoos across the Philippines, one of which including a hybrid species between the northern cassowary and the dwarf cassowary ***(Casuarius bennetti)***. The northern cassowary has a long history with captivity, in fact, the species was actually first discovered being held in an aviary in Calcutta, India during 1860.

## Sources

* Northern cassowary | Mongaby - https://rainforests.mongabay.com/kids/animal-profiles/northern\_cassowary.html
* Northern cassowary | BirdFact - https://birdfact.com/articles/what-do-cassowaries-eat
* Northern cassowary | IUCN - https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22678114/118134784#geographic-range
* Northern cassowary | BeautyOfBirds - https://beautyofbirds.com/northerncassowaries/
* Northern cassowary | iNaturalListAU - https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/taxa/20501-Casuarius-unappendiculatus
* Northern cassowary | ZOOINSTITUTES - https://zooinstitutes.com/animals/single-wattled-cassowary-3000/
* Northern cassowary | Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern\_cassowary