Their powerful legs also help them jump high, up to 7 feet straight into the air. Cassowaries have been clocked running as fast as 31 miles per hour through the rain forest. They are strong swimmers and can move quickly on both land and water. These large birds cannot fly, but their extremely powerful legs propel them at great speeds. The largest cassowaries can stand as high as six feet and weigh up to 160 pounds. It’s not hard to imagine that cassowaries are descended from dinosaur ancestors. Photo by Summerdrought on Wikimedia Commons. Their habitat is at a higher altitude, and they are generally found in more steep mountainous terrain.Ī free ranging Southern Cassowary ( Casuarius casuarius) at Etty Bay, north Queensland, Australia. The dwarf cassowary is smaller than the other two species of cassowary, usually weighing around 50 pounds. The Northern Cassowary, also known as the single-wattled cassowary, inhabits the coastal swamps and lowland rainforests of northern New Guinea. Their habitat is the lowland rainforest, and occasionally they are found in eucalyptus forests or forested swamps. The southern, or double-wattled cassowary, with a bright blue head, two red wattles, and black feathers, is the largest of the cassowaries. But they can do a lot of damage if they are provoked or angered. Cassowary attacks have occasionally been deadly, including a recent one which occurred in 2019, at a private collection of caged birds in Florida.Ĭassowaries are native to Northern Australia, New Guinea, and surrounding islands. The family Casuariidae includes three living cassowary species, all of the genus Casuarius: They are not overly aggressive, and attacks are rare. Photo by Gilles Rolland-Monnett on .Ĭassowaries are shy and they are usually hard to spot, at least in their natural rain forest habitats. The cassowary is usually considered to be the world’s most dangerous bird, at least where humans are concerned, although ostriches and emus can also be dangerous.
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