DISTRIBUTION:

The Southern Cassowary (Casuarius casuarius) is natural of the coastal area to the northeast of Queensland, Australia. It is also present on low elevations regions of New Guinea and some of the smaller nearby islands. Usually stays at low elevations. This species is the one with southern most distribution among the three cassowaries, that is why it is called the “Southern Cassowary”.

HABITAT:

The Southern Cassowary prefers the thick vegetations, such as the tropical jungles of forests.

BEHAVIOR:

Normally stays solitary and hidden inside the vegetation. It is hard to observe this bird in its natural habitat since it remains where the vegetation is abundant. Occasionally it comes out to clearings or the edges of the jungle, but never far into the opening. They have also been seeing crossing rivers swimming, which it can do rather well.

DESCRIPTION:

Once they are adults, the feathers of the body are black. The casque on their head is calcified cartilage, hard but has certain flexibility. It is attached to the bone on the head. On this species it grows to a triangular structure rather large compared to the size of the head; it is wider on the front and thinner on the back.

The head is naked, without feathers, and so is the upper part of the neck where the skin is blue. From the neck hang two red wattles, reason why some people call this bird the “Two-wattled Cassowary” or “Double-wattled Cassowary”.

Females are bigger than the males. They can reach a height of five feet, with a weight of about 175 pounds.

REPRODUCTION:

During the breeding the female appears to be dominant. Once she selects a male, she goes to his territory. The eggs, from three to five, are laid in a rudimentary nest on the ground. When the laying is done she leaves to her territory or breads in the same way with another male. The responsibility to care for the nest falls on the male. He incubates the eggs and cares for the young until they are almost his size.

FOOD:

The diet consists of fallen fruits it picks up from the ground. Although it will also eat any small animal it catches. A wild cassowary was seen catching and swallowing a rat, but this is not considered a usual case.

OTHER NAMES:

The Southern Cassowary is also called “Two-wattled Cassowary” and “Double-wattled Cassowary”. In Spanish it is known as “Casuario de Ceram”.