The world's most dangerous bird species once killed a boy by slitting his throat

And, because the U.S. is such an interesting place, one member of this species actually went up for auction in Florida in 2019

It’s almost Halloween! I have a story of a scary (but not spooky, like ghosts) bird today. Enjoy!

If you ask ornithologists (aka bird experts, aka my dream job) what the world’s most dangerous bird is, many would agree it’s the Cassowary.

Image credit: Wikipedia. Montage of three species; left to right: southern cassowary, northern cassowary and dwarf cassowary

Cassowaries are native to the tropical forests along the regions of New Guinea, the Aru Islands in Indonesia, and Australia.

In terms of appearance, they do look scary: Adult Southern Cassowaries can grow up to 2m tall and weight around 60kg. Females are also typically larger and more brightly coloured than the males - which is interesting!

Many other birds, like the peacock/peahen, are the other way around. Cassowaries are also armed, and armoured - they have powerful legs that allow them to jump 1.5m high, deliver strong kicks, and run up to 50km per hour. Each inner toe also has a 4-5 inch claw. On their heads, they have a ‘helmet’ called a casque.

Image credit: New York Times. Cassowaries look like a high-fashion dinosaur; powerful, heavy legs adorned with 5-inch claws, thick black shaggy feathers over their bodies, a cobalt blue and vibrant red neck, and a head adorned with a keratin “casque”.

We don’t really know why they have them (cassowaries are hard to observe and study) but many think that their casques could be a sign of age or dominance; as casques are made from the same material as our fingernails, and continue growing as cassowaries age.

Image credit: World Birds. All three cassowary species have a casque, also called a helmet, that starts to develop on top of their head at one to two years of age. The casque is made of a sponge-like material and covered with a thick layer of keratin, the same thing our fingernails are made of.

One American man kept one of the ‘world’s most dangerous’ birds on his farm. Then it killed him.

In 2019, emergency medical services responded to a call at near Alachua County, Florida. A 75-year-old man who raised exotic animals on his farm - from towering cassowaries to colorful macaws, lithe lemurs and cackling Kookaburras - had fallen and was attacked through the fence by at least one cassowary.

Rescue workers found him grievously injured, and died soon after in a hospital.

A Cassowary foot, and their 4-5 inch claw

Interestingly, this is actually only the second recorded human death by the claws of a cassowary.

The first known death was recorded in 1926, when a 16-year-old Australian boy and his brother came across a cassowary on their property and tried to strike it. While engaging with the bird, the 16-year-old boy had tripped and fallen down, and soon after, the cassowary kicked him in the neck, severing his jugular vein. The boy died of his injuries shortly thereafter.

But they’re not just vicious, dinosaur-like creatures

Rainforests need cassowaries: the birds are frugivores that eat fruit that has fallen to the ground, and then spread and disperse fruit seeds and they roam around the forest, pooping. Their heavy footsteps also help condition the soil they walk on.

And it doesn’t end there! Cassowaries are considered ‘keystone’ species because of their role as a major seed disperser of up to 238 rainforest species (with an estimated up to 100 plant species depending solely on these birds to disperse their seeds.) It goes without saying that without cassowaries, rainforests would look completely different.

One example of a plant species that depends solely on the cassowary is the Cassowary Plum.

Image credit: Flickr. Commonly known as cassowary plum, grey milkwood, or rubber tree, is a plant in the family Apocynaceae which is native to the region from Sulawesi to the Solomon Islands, including north east Queensland.

Each fruit is about the size of your hand, and the plant contains a sap poisonous to humans and most other animals. The cassowary’s unique digestive system – which is short and fast – and its stomach, which contains a rare combination of enzymes, allows it to digest the fruit.

Image credit: Twitter user @jan_wegener_. Southern Cassowary enjoying breakfast. In this case a rock hard and sandy fruit!

Dad-cassowaries do all the heavy lifting

Another cool fact is that Cassowaries seem to depend only on the male to raise their young! Once the eggs are laid, it is the male’s sole responsibility to incubate the eggs, raise the chicks, and teach them to forage.

As a standard behavior in Cassowaries, the female bird shows no interest in her new chicks at all!

Image credit: Zoo Borns. Three Southern Cassowaries hatched at Lodz Zoo in Poland in 2016. his is the fourth time for such an event at Lodz Zoo, since the first appearance of the species at the facility in 1967.

Breeding the species in captivity is rare. Although reportedly kept in 106 zoos worldwide, the Southern Cassowary has really only been bred in four institutions in the world.

While today’s newsletter started off a little more gruesome than usual, I hope you don’t see these interesting birds for the Jaws-like branding that I, and other publications, gave them. In reality, they are fascinating birds that play a unique role in their ecosystem - they just happen to look a little more dinosaur-like than most!