It's World Cassowary Day, a day to celebrate the extraordinary yet endangered southern cassowary.
It's no secret we love these iconic wonders of the Daintree - we've talked about them a lot over the years and are working hard to protect their rainforest habitat - so today, we're handing it over to you to see what you know!
Are you ready to test your cassowary knowledge?
1. What is the bony crest on top of a cassowary's head called?
a) Clique
b) Wattle
c) Casque
2. How many southern cassowaries are left in Australia's Wet Tropics?
a) 2,108
b) 4,400
c) 9,850
3. Whose responsibility is it to incubate a clutch of cassowary eggs?
a) Males
b) Females
c) No one! The eggs are hatched into a mound, similar to the orange-footed scrub fowl.
4. When did cassowaries evolve to their current form?
a) 500,000 years ago
b) 50 million years ago
c) 5,000 years ago
5. What is the number one threat to the survival of the southern cassowary?
a) Dogs
b) Cars
c) Habitat loss
A young southern cassowary chick.
Answers:
1. This crest is called a casque. Its purpose has been a bit of a mystery until recently, when scientists from La Trobe University discovered that it can be used for thermal regulation in hot weather.
2. At the last estimate, there were just 4,400 cassowaries left in Australia’s Wet Tropics. That includes chicks and juvenile birds. Check out our interview with Wren Mclean about this and more here.
3. When it comes to cassowaries, dads rule the roost. Once the eggs are laid, it is the male’s sole responsibility to incubate the eggs, a process which takes around 50 days. And once the eggs hatch, males raise the chicks for a further nine months. The father teaches the young cassowaries, which have distinctive stripes to forage. They become independent at around nine months and reach maturity at around three years.
4. Cassowaries evolved to their current form 50 million years ago. They started diverging from the greater Struthioniformes (flightless bird) group about 60 million years ago, so it took them about 10 million years to evolve to their current form. Check out our interview with Wren Mclean about this and more here.
5. Habitat loss is the southern cassowary's greatest threat. Cassowaries are territorial and need their own patch of rainforest to thrive. When this habitat becomes fragmented, degraded, or they feel threatened by dogs, they must move on. In Far North Queensland, much of the lowland rainforest has been converted to agricultural land for growing sugarcane and bananas. More of this land has been carved up for development. With rainforest in shorter supply, cassowaries are forced to venture onto roads and are killed by vehicle strikes.
We're working to protect southern cassowary habitat through land buyback in the Daintree Lowland Rainforest. You can help too. Please, act now to help us purchase and protect precious cassowary habitat.
