Cassowaries
The most common cassowary species, the southern cassowary, lives in southern New Guinea, is the third tallest and second most heavily lived bird, second only to the ostrich and emu.
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Main article: New Guinea
The largest of the registered representatives is the southern cassowary weighing 85 kg and growing 190 cm.
In April 2025, in a village on the banks of the Pulau River in Western New Guinea, TAdviser had a chance to meet a young domesticated cassowary.
Attacks on people
Cassowaries are very careful with people, but if provoked, they can cause serious, even fatal, injuries.
The attack is usually preceded by a menace pose in which the cassowary raises its feathers and tilts its head towards the ground, its neck inflates and its body begins to tremble. If this is followed by an actual attack, the cassowary hits both legs at the same time.
Cassowaries have three-toed legs with sharp claws. On the inner (first) finger there is a dagger-shaped claw up to 12.5 cm long. This claw is especially dangerous. Cassowaries can run at speeds of up to 50 km/h through dense forest and jump to a height of up to 1.5 m. They swim well, swim wide rivers and swim in the sea.
A 2003 study on 221 cassowary attacks showed that 150 of them were committed on people;
- 75% of them were committed by cassowaries who were fed by people;
- in 71% of cases, the bird pursued or attacked the victim, and in 15% of cases it struck.
Of all the attacks, 73% were due to birds expecting or grabbing food,
- 5% were associated with the protection of natural food sources,
- 15% were associated with self-defense, and 7% were associated with the protection of chicks or eggs. Among these 150 attacks, only one fatality was recorded, but in general, such cases are mentioned much more often among the local population.
Features of the structure
All three types of cassowary on the head have a keratin, skin-covered scaly shell, which grows with age.
Cassowaries have small wings with five or six large flight feathers. They turned into hard keratin needles, resembling porcupine needles (the heritage of archaeopteryx).
The incredibly short and simple digestive tract of the cassowary leads to a short time of food in the gut, which allows seeds to remain unharmed in the process of comparatively soft digestion and allows them to consume fruits containing toxins such as cyanogens.
Since adult excrement often contains semi-digested fruits that are still of nutritional value, birds eat both their own droppings and the droppings of other birds.
Cassowaries eat the fruits of more than a hundred species of tropical plants and usually leave viable seeds with dense litter. Cassowaries are known to spread seeds over distances of more than a kilometer and thus play an important role in the ecosystem.
Lifestyle
With the exception of the mating season, cassowaries live alone. Active in the dark, with a peak of activity during evening and morning twilight, usually rest during the day. Most of the time they are engaged in food search, using all the time the old paths through the undergrowth.
Most populations hatch chicks between July and October, however, there were birds that hatched eggs in other months of the year. The male inspects a plot of 1 to 5 km ². If a female comes in, the male starts the marriage game.
After mating, the couple stays together for several more weeks. In this case, the female lays from three to eight eggs in the nest, entouraged by the male.
Females mostly do not take part in hatching eggs and caring for chicks; often they go to the site to another male, with whom they mate again. Males hatch eggs for about two months and then take care of the chicks on their own.
The average life expectancy of wild cassowaries is 18-20 years, and those kept in captivity live to 40 years.
Knives made of bone and jewelry made of cassowary feathers
The peoples of New Guinea, including the Asmata and Korowai, use cassowary bones to make knives.
[[Image:Нож из кости казуара асматы.jpg|840px|thumb|Asmatsky a knife made of cassowary bone. Tribal [1] catalog[2]
From the claws of the legs of cassowaries, Papuans make spear tips, and from the spines of the wings - thin, up to 10 cm long needles, with which they sew and repair their clothes[3].
with a [[Image:Асмат и нож казуара 2025.jpg|840px|thumb|Young Asmat cassowary bone knife and a cassowary feather headdress during a tourist welcome ceremony for guests, Pulau River, April 2025. Photo by TAdviser]]
[[Image:Череп предка асмата.jpg|840px|thumb|Череп предка asmata, decorated with cassowary seeds and feathers. The first half of the 20th [4]
See also
Notes
- ↑ ArtTribal Art
- ↑ . The essential world guide, Judith Miller]]
- ↑ Hermit from the jungle: how the archaic cassowary bird lives
- ↑ century Tribal Art. The essential world guide, Judith Miller]]
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