Habitats

A densely vegetated habitat, emulating the rainforests found along the North Queensland coast, the Rainforest habitat at Sydney Wildlife World features the endangered Southern Cassowary, a large flightless bird.

The Southern or Double-wattled Cassowary is the world’s second largest bird by weight, third by height. Reaching up to 1.8 metres in height, it can run surprisingly fast through the rainforest undergrowth, using the horn-like casque on the top of its head to part the vegetation. The casque is made of keratin, the same material which makes up our fingernails and hair, and is slightly flexible.

One of the unusual things about cassowaries is their love life, for cassowaries have reversed gender roles. With most bird species it is the male which is the more colourful sex, trying to impress females.  With cassowaries, however, it is the female which is larger, more colourful and more aggressive. It is also the female which tries to woo the male.  Once her eggs are laid, the female cassowary then leaves it up to the male to incubate the eggs and look after the young, while she goes off in search of other males.

Few animals are as formidable as cassowaries when it comes to watching over their nests. Cassowaries are armed with long, stiletto-like claws on their inner toes and have caused a number of human deaths by lashing out with their powerful legs. Fortunately, wild cassowaries are shy by nature and unprovoked attacks are rare, although cassowaries which have become accustomed to being fed by the public have been known to attack for food.