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Southern Cassowary — printable fact sheet
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Southern Cassowary
Casuarius casuarius
The cassowary is often called the most dangerous bird in the world, and the danger is very specific: the inner toe of each foot carries a straight, dagger-like claw up to about twelve centimetres long, and the bird kicks forward and downward with the full force of a heavy, power…
Did you know?
- Despite their size and fearsome reputation, Southern Cassowaries are crucial for rainforest regeneration due to their unique ability to spread large seeds over long distances.
- The dagger-like inner claw on each foot can be 12 cm long, and the bird kicks forward and down. Its head casque is not a weapon — it is spongy, and likely works as a resonator and a heat radiator. It makes the lowest-frequency call of any bird, a boom at the edge of human hearing, because low sounds carry through dense rainforest. It is the only animal able to disperse the seeds of some rainforest trees.
What I learned
Draw the southern cassowary
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