Finding a cassowary scat sprouting rainforest trees can be a great way to stock your nursery and grow more cassowary food trees. Many thanks to Jeff Larsen from C4 (Community for Coastal and Cassowary Conservation) in Mission Beach for providing this picture.
One of the young birds recently released Photo: Graham Lauridsen
Three chicks who have been residents at Garners Beach Cassowary Recovery Facility during 2015 were released back into the wild in late November. Small tracking devices have been attached to the young birds. Dr Hamish Campbell and Dr Graham Lauridsen will be running a three year tracking project to see where the birds roam and how long they survive. The tracking devices are small, placed on the back of the cassowary’s neck, and the batteries last between three and five years. The birds will be tracked from a transceiver located in the bush near the release site in Hull River National Park south of the river. The transceiver has a range of about five kilometres. Local residents will also be on the lookout any birds with the tracking devices if they travel further afield.
The tracking device attached to the back of the young cassowary’s neck Photo: Graham Lauridsen
There have also been some new arrivals at Garners Beach in the past month.
The Wet Tropics is home to about 4,400 cassowaries, with a minimum of five percent being the year’s youngsters. The figure is based on several years of monitoring and DNA analysis by Dr David Westcott and his team of researchers at CSIRO under the National Environmental Research Program.
Their Wet Tropics surveys covered 1886 kilometres and 156 transects. They recorded 1444 cassowary signs (dung, feathers, tracks and sightings). They also did 170 surveys of focus sites and recorded 296 signs of cassowaries. The DNA of 435 sub-samples was analysed from 134 different dung samples.
What do the population numbers mean for cassowary conservation?
Project 3.4 Final Report – Estimation of the population size and distribution of the southern cassowary, Casuarius casuarius, in the Wet Tropics Region of Australia
You can download the full report above or visit the NERP website for more information.
Reference: Westcott, D., Metcalfe, S., Jones, D., Bradford, M., McKeown, A., Ford, A. (2014) Estimation of the population size and distribution of the southern cassowary, Casuarius casuarius, in the Wet Tropics Region of Australia Project © CSIRO
Scientific American published Inside the cassowary’s casque by Darren Naish on its blog on 15 February 2015.
The article discusses the evolution of the various cassowary species and the anatomy of the cassowary casque and how it may be used. It emphasises that we still have a lot to learn about all these facets of cassowary research.
You can also download a copy of the research below:
Mission Beach Cassowaries website Photo: Liz Gallie
The Mission Beach Cassowaries website and Facebook page offer a wealth of information about cassowaries. They collect daily information about local birds and their movements and behaviour. The site has over 900 members who can contribute stories, sightings and photos. Cassowary sightings and incidents are recorded and mapped to help us understand more about their behaviour and promote their conservation.
Mission Beach Cassowaries plays a major role in community education and participation in cassowary conservation. It also contributes to local government planning and campaigns to prevent further cassowary deaths from road accidents and dog attacks.
Visit the Mission Beach Cassowaries website for more information and join in the discussions on its Facebook page.
Male cassowary and chick, Photo: Tony Kennedy
It’s cassowary breeding season and time to watch out for young chicks wandering around with dad. Some of the messages we want local communities to heed are:
Sub-adult cassowary crossing the road, Photo: Deb Pople
Cassowary crossing the road at Mission Beach (Photo: Geoff Larson)
Paul Webster has released his new song, Karl the Cassowary, to highlight the plight of the endangered southern cassowary, in particular those that are wandering along roadsides.
Have a listen to Karl the Cassowary and look up other cassowary TV videos on You Tube. See the lyrics below.
Karl the Cassowary (lyrics)
I’ve no more time to wait for my redemption
So I popped my head up roadside to get all your attention
I’ve got three chicks and a track well worn
You may have seen me on Kuranda Range just around dawn
CHORUS
Big as a man blue, black & red
I got a great big horn in the middle of my head
My name’s Karl but friends all call me horny
It’s so scary being the last southern cassowary
If you don’t treat us fairly you won’t even see us rarely
Standing on the side of the road with my three little chicks in tow
I’m a single dad with three chickadees
Keystone species of the jungle I spread round all the seeds
I like figs and plums and candlenuts
When it comes to quandong I just can’t get enough
CHORUS
If you don’t want me to go the way of the Commodore
Why don’t you build me & the kids a wildlife corridor
Took most of my land with your big bulldozer
Now what’s the plan, simply run us all over?
It’s so scary being the last southern cassowary
If you don’t treat us fairly you won’t even see us rarely
Standing on the side of the road I got nowhere else to go
Standing on the side of the road. Well where’s a cassowary to go?
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