Australia’s fearsome “modern-day” dinosaur bird cassowaries face extinction

Airlie Beach, Australia:

With legs like a velociraptor and a striking neon blue neck, the southern cassowary cuts a fearsome figure in the rainforests of northeastern Australia.

It’s best to admire these human-sized birds – and their sharp 10-centimeter (four-inch) claws – from afar.

“It’s a modern dinosaur,” said Peter Rowles, the burly president of a community group that protects endangered birds.

Fiercely territorial, when threatened they hiss and emit a deep, thunderous rumble.

“When you first look at them, it can be intimidating because they have big eyes and they look right at you and they look a little fierce,” Rowles said.

These flightless birds are found only in Australia, New Guinea and some Pacific islands.

The Australian government lists them as threatened and estimates that around 4,500 remain in the wild.

They are considered a “keystone species,” meaning they play a vital role in maintaining biodiversity and spreading seeds in the rainforest.

If cassowaries go extinct, rainforests will suffer.

“We thought if we could save the cassowaries, we could also save enough habitat to keep many other species alive,” Rowles explained.

His group is doing what they can to save these formidable birds, which stand 1.5 meters (five feet) tall and can weigh up to 75 kilograms (165 pounds).

These include creating signs asking drivers to slow down, redesigning roads to better protect native habitats, and running a cassowary hospital for injured birds.

The main threats to the cassowary are car strikes, destruction of native habitats, dog attacks and climate change.

“Cassowaries are not aggressive when they are well cared for,” Rowles said, with few recorded deaths caused by the species.

A young Australian man was killed in 1926 after chasing the bird, which severed his jugular vein, while a Florida man died in 2019 when his pet cassowary attacked.

‘Naturally grumpy birds’

Over the past 300 years, around 100 unique species of Australian flora and fauna have been wiped from the planet.

This extinction rate is likely to increase, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

“There is a lot that needs to be done and the resources are not available to make a significant impact,” said Darren Grover, WWF Australia’s acting director of conservation.

“We are looking at around 2,000 species on the Australian government’s threatened species list and more and more species are added to that list annually,” he added.

Threats include climate change, habitat loss and invasive species, Grover said.

The Australian government has a national recovery plan underway to save the iconic cassowary – as it does for many other species – which includes working with indigenous groups and conservationists.

Much of the country’s conservation efforts focus on protecting keystone species, a concept developed by zoologists in the 1960s.

Grover said this is the best approach when resources are limited because it provides flow-on effects to other animals in that habitat.

But this strategy can only go so far, he warned: “I don’t think we can ever do enough to save our wildlife in Australia.”

“Cassowaries are an incredible species and whenever you see them in the wild it’s fantastic,” he said.

“But be careful because they are naturally feisty birds, they are big and powerful and we need to give them some space.”

(Except the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)