Just some photos of my Ostriches and Emu :)

[casuarius]

though cassowaries kill people fairly frequently and they're a lot smaller than emus.

This is actually a very common misconception mostly believed because of what is passed around on the internet by ancient research. Cassowaries are actually the 2nd largest bird in size, they are just not as tall as Emus. Emus look much larger than they are because their feathers are so puffy, but shave it all off and they are not much larger than a Rhea, just taller. Cassowaries are very hefty built, and the feathers are not thick at all, they lay right against the muscle. Some Cassowaries do get as tall as a Emu, I have one hen that is 6 ft, and 192 lbs. The other hen is shorter, but weighs 210 lbs. My largest Emu was around 140 lbs. I have not weighed any of the others because they arent as big. My smallest male Cassowary is only around 5 ft tall, but still 178 lbs last I checked (cattle scale if you're wondering). These are only Double Wattled Cassowaries, there is also the Single Wattled Cassowary in northern Papua New Guinea that is even bigger. Only the Dwarf Cassowaries probably weigh as much or less than a Emu. I have been kicked by a Emu before, only time ever. My brother was over with a dumb friend of his and he was running the fence teasing her, and later when I went into the pen she was still flaming from earlier, she ran up and kicked me in the back and I jumped around to smack her silly as she ran the other direction lol. I have never been kicked by a Ostrich or Cassowary, and I dont want to be. Either one could easily kill you. Ostriches have been known to kill lions with one kick when protecting their chicks. I do know a guy that sold out of them back in the 90s because of attacks from the males. Of course they were a bit ignorant and put themselves in harms way. But his wife got attacked by a male while trying to go in and get eggs. He injured her pretty good and she played dead until her husband got home, he had to take the truck in the pasture to get her out. The male also kicked the truck and put punctures in the sheet metal on other occasions. Finally it charged the man and kicked him head on, tearing a ribbon of flesh out beginning at his collar bone, and ending just above the belly button. Put him in the hospital. They sold out after that, and they had the Reds btw. I had a pair of Reds and the male was very aggressive. I knew better than to go in with him... same as with my Cassowaries.

 

[chooks4life]

Quote: Not sure which bit you're disagreeing with. I live in Australia, Queensland, and in the news every few years there is someone getting hurt or killed by a cassowary. Compare that to an emu or ostrich and that's 'fairly common'. Their size has nothing to do with their ferocity or territorial instincts. They are the ratite most likely to kill you.

I didn't get my info from ancient research being passed around the internet, either. It's just from personal observation. There are near-misses with cassowaries every year, which would contribute to deaths caused by them if the birds had succeeded in those instances. Nobody, or almost nobody, has attacks from, or near misses, with wild emus. People fear cassowaries, but not emus. Around here cassowaries are noticeably smaller than emus, not just shorter. Might have something to do with their decreased habitat, perhaps.

I don't know where you got your cassowaries, but all the ones I've seen (wild bred) are significantly smaller than all the emus I've seen (also wild bred) so I'd guess yours are perhaps bred to a larger size or rendered thus by the easy feed factor of being in captivity over generations. When food is always on hand things do tend to get bigger. How many generations have yours been tame or captive for?

 

[casuarius]

Not disagreeing with anything except the size, but perhaps you are right about Australian birds. I do know Australia has a different subspecies than Papua New Guinea, and it is possible they dont get as big. I have talked to individuals that have went to Australia doing research on the wild birds whom said he seen some very large females. Males are quite a bit smaller usually. Though I have given samples to a group of Zoologists working with AZA and they think the genetics of my birds are Australian, but not sure. I personally think they are from New Guinea because of the darker casque and shorter fatter wattles. Australia's birds seem to have very long thin wattles, and more of a brown taller casque, with a bit longer neck as well. I do have one wild caught female that is fairly old. She was brought here as a chick in the 70's, and the guy that brought her said he flew them from New Guinea, so this one I know for sure is from New Guinea. As I said, she is huge, 6 ft tall, and bigger than any of my Emus. One thing for sure, Cassowaries feet and legs are much larger than Emus. You are correct though, they are definitely the most dangerous ratite. Even without the claw, they just have a territorial nature. I think Australia's subspecies(casuarius johnsonii) is the most colorful of the Double Wattled, I would love to have some.

As I said in my last comments, the Single Wattled are larger than the Double, and since they live in New Guinea with Double Wattles, I think the genetics there are just larger, and after all, they are all related somewhere down the line. Check this video out with two in a zoo side by side, notice the Single Wattle Cassowary on the left is larger, poor things casque looks as if it got caught in the fence at one time.

 

[chooks4life]

Strange. I do know Cassowaries in general have thicker legs, being closer physically to fighting birds than fleeing birds when it comes to being attacked (whereas emus respond by fleeing) but all the ones I've seen are quite a bit shorter than emus, and the emus I've seen have all been quite a bit bigger than the ones you reference.

Then again zoo stock are tragic in many instances. Tiny, chronically inbred populations. I've read some zoo studbooks tracing the entire global captive population of some species back to as little as two or five individuals. The signs are starting to show in many species. Some domestic breeds are hardly any better. I hope more people get into breeding them.

 

[casuarius]

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2013/09/cassowaries/judson-text Here is a nice article about Cassowaries in this months National Geographic magazine. You are right regarding the Zoos, it is very tragic. For years they had Cassowaries but did not breed them due to the AZA not allowing it. Well now all the Cassowaries in European Zoos and American Zoos have pretty much died out with the exception of a few. In the private sector, most people are just too scared of them so they never bothered to buy any and try to breed them. The other thing that still holds alot of people back is the cost, which is not at all cheap. But when you think about it and Emus used to sale for $20,000 or more back when the farming was all going on, I would much rather pay that for a pair of Cassowaries than Emus. The biggest problem is Cassowaries are one of the hardest species to breed of any bird. Their territorial nature makes it nearly impossible. I had to go through 3 different males to finally find one that was compatible with one of my hens. The problem with this is there just arent enough Cassowaries left to do this. I only know of 2 other individuals besides myself in the US with breeding pairs, and I only know of 4 others that have a Cassowary or two, but cant find a mate, or dont care to. Even us with breeding birds dont do great with them, the things are very hard to hatch in incubators, and the chicks are very prone to leg problems during the first few months. Sadly, its a slow downward spiral with them I fear, something should have been done 20 years back when there was actually a good captive population. Alot of the captive ones here have died from people just buying them and taking them up north where its too cold, or throwing birds in together that have never seen each other, and they just kill one another because the people were too ignorant to study before buying. My friend has the only 3 Single Wattles in the Americas, they are even scarcer in captivity than Double Wattles. Most captive birds now are in Asian Zoos, which arent breeding them.

 

[chooks4life]

That's no good. I don't know much about Cassowaries in general, but even as a kid I knew they were likely to become extinct in my lifetime.

About the leg problems... Just a random thought... It could be dietary. Cassowaries are big on fruit as far as I know and Australia rarely has harmless fruits. There are many medicinal fruits as well. The animals which feed on these toxic and medicinal fruits are often specifically adapted to them. It is entirely possible that Cassowaries exported from Australia are dependent on something local to Australian flora. Not so dependent they die without it, but maybe too dependent to thrive without it during a certain (early?) life stage. I don't know for sure, of course.

Australia has a signature mineral balance in almost all places, so it's possible Cassowaries in other countries that originated from Australia have too much or too little of what their system needs (I'd bet too much would be more likely than too little). The soils of Australia are often extremely impoverished. I have a book on Aussie forest fruits, natives, and there are many deadly fruits identical to harmless ones or medicinal ones. I highly doubt anyone is authoritatively familiar with the secretive wild Cassowaries' favorites, and the seasons or times it prefers the fruits, which impacts their chemical composition. With many elusive creatures in captivity who fail to breed as easily as others, it often is a dietary issue that is at fault, a lack of some unidentified but important feed item. The leg issues could be due the females not eating the right thing at the right time while building eggs. Or it could be due to pathogens or microorganisms in other countries which are not present in Australia to which Cassowary eggs are vulnerable. Ok, getting even more random there...

Maybe in future I'll have a go at helping the Cassowary recover some numbers. I'm not overly keen to breed livestock which may represent a continual threat to children, but then again children grow up and move out of home. So who knows what the future holds.

EDIT: looked at the article you linked to. They've misreported this bit:

Quote: Only recently a teenager was killed and more incidents have been in the news every few years. The state of news in Australia... That Cassowary article was published in 2013 apparently, so that's strange.

I rue the state of journalism everywhere. But it is true most Cassowary attacks were provoked.

The larger Cassowaries you speak of live up North of me. The smaller ones are all around this area. But I don't know why they say a Cassowary looking down on a five-foot-five person is bigger than an emu. Maybe the outback emus I'm used to are bigger than the ones cited in articles.

Certainly the kangaroos and many other outback creatures are much larger. We've seen Red kangaroos over 10 feet tall. (I know, it sounds like a tall tale, but everything in the outback is bigger). The emus we encountered were an average of six feet tall at the head, standing normally, and their bodies ranged from five to seven feet long on average. You know what, never mind, lol, even in Australia everyone thinks people from the outback are exaggerating. Did I mention I raised an ewe with a back as big and broad as a table top? True story.

 

[casuarius]

Yes, the article is a bit inaccurate for sure. Emus are taller generally, and my Emus are all at least 6 ft tall. As I mentioned, one of my Cassowary females is 6 feet though. They also mentioned that the Southern(double Wattled) Cassowaries are the largest species, which is not correct. Again, most of the information these guys come up with is a repeat of old outdated info, and the reason for it, is nobody has bothered to do the research needed to get the facts straight, but the people like myself that have kept and bred them and seen all species know which is largest. Also, the death toll they mentioned caused by Cassowaries is not correct. Especially in New Guinea, and im not sure why most articles are always on Australia's birds, probably because they are the ones most threatened. But New Guinea has the largest and most diverse numbers, and research on the species as a whole would be much easier to do there. I have talked to a local person in New Guinea, whom says that Cassowaries kill quite a few of the natives there every year, because they hunt them and try to take their eggs... and they try to capture the chicks to keep in their villages like chickens for food later. The issue with the legs we think could be a vitamin D deficiency, along with exercise. The thing is, if the males hatch and raise the chicks, they never have leg problems. But in turn, the problem with letting the males incubate and hatch is they will start sitting after only a couple of eggs are hatched meaning less numbers, and they get insanely violent when they have chicks lol.

 

[chooks4life]

Oh, so they're kept in brooders then? Can't they have access to sunshine too? Sounds like a new brooder system might need to be made. Sounds to me like the best bet for Cassowaries as as a species is if rich environmentally minded folks buy up their native habitat and protect them, and the natives are enabled to breed them if possible... Though I'd guess they don't do that due to how dangerous they can be as adults... Hard issue to resolve. If the industry took an interest in them as livestock it'd be solved quickly, I bet. Many of our livestock species were naturally violent in defense of their young but we bred that out of them.

At least, those farmers who believed it was both possible and necessary did... The rest still breed dangerous parents. Farmers in the UK seem especially terrified of their cows when they've got calves, compared to Aussie and USA farmers. But of course breeding tamer stock requires more animals to choose from and the ability to no longer concern yourself with genetic lines that refuse to 'come good' --- i.e. culling against violence --- which isn't much of an option with Cassowaries.

I think New Guinea gets forgotten as a rule. Just not one of those celebrated places that gets all the media attention. Something really, really bad has to go wrong with them before they're in the news here.