The Majestic Cassowary

I was teaching my son a chapter which had an interesting story about a baby Elephant and a Cassowary bird.

"Cassowary?" what is that, I questioned myself, "Never heard about that bird before!"

Although the chapter told me a lot about the bird but somehow my quest for knowledge about this bird was still unquenched so I surfed the internet for all the information I could get on the Cassowary bird. As usual, my personal comments are highlighted in blue colour.

There are three species recognized today:

• Southern Cassowary or Double-wattled cassowary C. casuarius of Australia and New Guinea.
• Dwarf Cassowary C. bennetti of New Guinea and New Britain.
• Northern Cassowary C. unappendiculatus of New Guinea.

Cassowary

Oh boy! This bird is actually amazing. It is the third largest flightless bird on Earth. The largest bird is the Ostrich, then Emu and then the third largest being, the Cassowary bird! (Kiwi, though small, ranks fourth in size amongst the flightless birds, so there are four flightless birds known till now ).

Well, they can be spotted in the tropical forests of New Guinea and northeastern Australia.

Now, what do they feed on? Cassowaries are omnivorous. They feed on fruits, shoots, fungi, invertebrates and small vertebrates like snakes, frogs, etc.

Ideally, a Cassowary bird is shy and solitary in nature but mind you, if you disturb them, they can be fatal. Yes, they are capable of kicking hard with their powerful claws and inflicting fatal injuries to an adult human (So better not disturb a Cassowary lest you land up with an injury and also it would seem a bit embarrassing to be kicked by a bird LOL!).

And now let me tell you something that is attention-grabbing —– Ideally, the male birds are more pretty looking than the female birds (hey, that's one score up for men, whoops!) But, there are few birds that still follow the human pattern i.e. the female bird is prettier than the male birds and one such bird is the Cassowary (Oh, thanks darling for scoring up!)

Another thing worthy of note is that Cassowaries are solitary birds, they hang around with their species only at the time of breeding (no hanky-panky stuff, so, they are short and snappy, smart eh!) And you would literally frown at the behaviour of Cassowary females, they lay eggs and simply walk off leaving the eggs for the male bird to incubate and take care of the eggs and chicks (Hey, how convenient!!!!!!!!! Extremely smart or say Cold and heartless. Oh God, let all MCP's take birth as the male Cassowaries, next time hehehehehehe) Sorry guys ;)!

Eggs of the Cassowary bird

So, female Cassowary has gone the unconventional way in case of the maternal social structure in the animal world! And you won't believe, once the female cassowary lays a clutch of eggs, she thinks her job with her partner is over and time to find another male to mate!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Now that sounds something like a female Casanova (sorry, can't strike the perfect word at the moment!)) Rest assured every male cassowary that she finds is blessed with clutch of 3-5 eggs to look after

Now that's what I call managerial skills!

For your information, "The 2007 edition of the Guinness World Records lists the cassowary as the world’s most dangerous bird."

So that was all about the powerful and fascinating Cassowary birds, the male cassowaries endowed with affection, care and extraordinary parental qualities and the female Cassowaries with exceptionally flirtatious skills. All in all, this bird is a beauty in itself!

P.S. I owe special thanks to my friend Mr. Rajat Bhargava, an Ornithologist, for encouraging me to take interest in "The winged creatures BIRDS (Angels in disguise)."