WEBVTT - Short Stuff: Cassowary

0:00:04.200 --> 0:00:07.040
<v Speaker 1>Hey, and welcome to the short stuff. I'm flightless Josh.

0:00:07.080 --> 0:00:11.080
<v Speaker 1>There's flightless Chuck. Flightless. Jerry's with us and we're speaking

0:00:11.119 --> 0:00:15.560
<v Speaker 1>about the cassowary, a type of bird that is you

0:00:15.680 --> 0:00:20.759
<v Speaker 1>guessed it, flight less. There's no less flight in a

0:00:20.840 --> 0:00:27.560
<v Speaker 1>bird than the cassowary. I am a right, flightless and dangerous,

0:00:27.600 --> 0:00:31.920
<v Speaker 1>the most dangerous bird in the world. So where does

0:00:31.960 --> 0:00:36.560
<v Speaker 1>it live? Of course Australia, that's right, uh in this sucker.

0:00:36.640 --> 0:00:38.440
<v Speaker 1>If you want to look up a picture, if you're

0:00:38.440 --> 0:00:41.000
<v Speaker 1>not driving or something, you should check it out. They

0:00:41.040 --> 0:00:44.440
<v Speaker 1>are sort of known as one of the closest um

0:00:44.479 --> 0:00:52.320
<v Speaker 1>relatives to dinosaurs bird wise that we have, specifically the velociraptor. Yeah.

0:00:53.200 --> 0:00:59.680
<v Speaker 1>I love Jurassic Park, Chuck, how do you too? So um,

0:00:59.800 --> 0:01:01.920
<v Speaker 1>you know what's funny is I hadn't actually looked up

0:01:01.920 --> 0:01:04.480
<v Speaker 1>a picture of the cassowary until you said you should

0:01:04.480 --> 0:01:05.839
<v Speaker 1>look it up. I was like, oh, yeah, I've still

0:01:05.959 --> 0:01:08.000
<v Speaker 1>never seen one of these. Now I see it, I'm like, okay,

0:01:08.040 --> 0:01:11.520
<v Speaker 1>I've seen this, but they're amazing videos. They look like

0:01:11.600 --> 0:01:14.440
<v Speaker 1>a cross not across, but you're you can tell they're

0:01:14.480 --> 0:01:19.920
<v Speaker 1>definitely akin to EMUs ostriches um and they're huge. They're

0:01:19.959 --> 0:01:23.320
<v Speaker 1>really big. There there's there's three types and the one

0:01:23.319 --> 0:01:27.440
<v Speaker 1>of the types, I think this the southern is the

0:01:27.480 --> 0:01:29.920
<v Speaker 1>second biggest bird in the world, next to the ostrich

0:01:30.000 --> 0:01:33.320
<v Speaker 1>or heaviest. I should say at least yes, they are

0:01:33.959 --> 0:01:37.039
<v Speaker 1>super big and super dangerous. They they're listed as a

0:01:37.080 --> 0:01:40.720
<v Speaker 1>Class two animal in Florida, along with alligators and cats.

0:01:41.480 --> 0:01:43.080
<v Speaker 1>If you're asking why would they be in Florida if

0:01:43.080 --> 0:01:47.280
<v Speaker 1>they're native to Southeast Asian Australia, is because people can

0:01:47.400 --> 0:01:50.640
<v Speaker 1>if they jump through hoops, keep them as pets. But

0:01:51.200 --> 0:01:52.920
<v Speaker 1>they can kill you, which is what happened to a

0:01:53.000 --> 0:01:55.360
<v Speaker 1>seventy five year old man in Florida, in Florida whose

0:01:55.400 --> 0:01:58.880
<v Speaker 1>pet Cassowary killed him dead. And all this chuck, by

0:01:58.920 --> 0:02:01.720
<v Speaker 1>the way, is a demoustration of how why those in

0:02:01.720 --> 0:02:07.280
<v Speaker 1>the no call Florida Western Australia. Is that true? No?

0:02:07.560 --> 0:02:10.120
<v Speaker 1>But it it really it does line up. There's a

0:02:10.160 --> 0:02:13.040
<v Speaker 1>lot of stuff that wants to kill you in Florida too,

0:02:13.880 --> 0:02:16.200
<v Speaker 1>all right, and a lot of people who like to

0:02:16.320 --> 0:02:18.680
<v Speaker 1>keep that stuff that wants to kill you as pets

0:02:19.720 --> 0:02:23.720
<v Speaker 1>both places. And that's a bad combo. And I believe

0:02:23.760 --> 0:02:28.800
<v Speaker 1>crocodile Dundee were retired to Naples, Florida in the last

0:02:28.840 --> 0:02:32.920
<v Speaker 1>one coming together. I'm kidding, Okay, it would have been

0:02:32.960 --> 0:02:36.280
<v Speaker 1>pretty awesome though. Uh. Back to the castoary though. It

0:02:36.320 --> 0:02:39.959
<v Speaker 1>has these sort of bristly feathers that look like hair.

0:02:40.120 --> 0:02:42.280
<v Speaker 1>If you see a video of them, if you're kind

0:02:42.280 --> 0:02:43.760
<v Speaker 1>of from a distance, it looks like kind of a

0:02:43.760 --> 0:02:47.160
<v Speaker 1>hairy thing. They have this blue face, a couple of

0:02:47.200 --> 0:02:49.919
<v Speaker 1>red wattles on the neck, and then this big cask

0:02:50.440 --> 0:02:53.600
<v Speaker 1>helmet on top of its head made of keratin that's

0:02:53.760 --> 0:02:58.560
<v Speaker 1>really like a literal helmet. Yeah, that's probably what makes

0:02:58.600 --> 0:03:00.880
<v Speaker 1>them seem the most dinosaurs are like, although they got

0:03:00.919 --> 0:03:04.280
<v Speaker 1>a lot of dinosaurs features that that helmet, like the

0:03:04.360 --> 0:03:07.680
<v Speaker 1>hard helmet. It's made of the same stuff like you said, Karen,

0:03:07.680 --> 0:03:09.480
<v Speaker 1>and that's what their beaks made of two and same

0:03:09.520 --> 0:03:14.760
<v Speaker 1>with their feathers too, but it's really tough structural skin. Um.

0:03:15.720 --> 0:03:19.520
<v Speaker 1>I think there's dinosaurs that had that same exact thing. Yeah,

0:03:19.520 --> 0:03:25.280
<v Speaker 1>it looks like a a fin of a tri serratops. Yes,

0:03:25.480 --> 0:03:29.000
<v Speaker 1>just one of them, right, yeah, yeah, yeah, so it's

0:03:29.080 --> 0:03:33.440
<v Speaker 1>just the sarahtops right Well no, no, no, not the horns.

0:03:33.440 --> 0:03:38.800
<v Speaker 1>I'm talking about the on the back. Are you okay?

0:03:40.160 --> 0:03:43.840
<v Speaker 1>I've been better? All right? Uh. The thing that's so

0:03:43.920 --> 0:03:47.080
<v Speaker 1>deadly about the castowary though, is not you're not gonna

0:03:47.080 --> 0:03:51.200
<v Speaker 1>get headbutted by that cask. Is you're gonna get clawed

0:03:51.640 --> 0:03:53.520
<v Speaker 1>by a three to five inch This is where the

0:03:53.600 --> 0:03:56.640
<v Speaker 1>velociraptor thing comes in, this three to five inch claw

0:03:57.160 --> 0:03:59.920
<v Speaker 1>that is super sharp. And all you have to do

0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:02.360
<v Speaker 1>is look at a video of the guy on YouTube

0:04:02.400 --> 0:04:06.840
<v Speaker 1>with a basically a big shield in this cassowary coming

0:04:06.880 --> 0:04:09.720
<v Speaker 1>at him and jumping and kicking both of his legs

0:04:09.720 --> 0:04:12.480
<v Speaker 1>with these clawset this guy and literally knocking us grown

0:04:12.520 --> 0:04:15.440
<v Speaker 1>man backwards. To know how scary this thing can be. Yeah,

0:04:15.520 --> 0:04:19.400
<v Speaker 1>it's like, um, I mean they're like, it's there. Those

0:04:19.400 --> 0:04:22.080
<v Speaker 1>claws are super sharp, but their legs are also super

0:04:22.120 --> 0:04:25.760
<v Speaker 1>powerful too, so they pack a really big punch that's

0:04:25.800 --> 0:04:29.880
<v Speaker 1>also a really sharp punch that's been known to basically

0:04:29.960 --> 0:04:32.240
<v Speaker 1>gut people like not only can it like make you

0:04:32.279 --> 0:04:36.000
<v Speaker 1>bleed pretty bad, it can reach your internal organs sometimes too.

0:04:36.320 --> 0:04:39.640
<v Speaker 1>And the reason they're flightless is even though they're big,

0:04:39.680 --> 0:04:43.320
<v Speaker 1>their little wings only extend fully extent about a foot

0:04:43.400 --> 0:04:45.920
<v Speaker 1>from their potty, so they have no chance of flying

0:04:46.680 --> 0:04:48.680
<v Speaker 1>they don't. One of the other things too, by their feathers.

0:04:48.680 --> 0:04:50.880
<v Speaker 1>You said, it looks like hair. It's really good to

0:04:50.920 --> 0:04:54.279
<v Speaker 1>protect them because they live in the forests with a

0:04:54.320 --> 0:04:56.800
<v Speaker 1>lot of dense underbrush, a lot of thorns, a lot

0:04:56.839 --> 0:05:00.400
<v Speaker 1>of branches and stuff. And one of the the rees

0:05:01.040 --> 0:05:03.719
<v Speaker 1>behind why they think they have that horn on their head.

0:05:03.920 --> 0:05:07.000
<v Speaker 1>What's it call again? I want to say cask. The

0:05:07.040 --> 0:05:08.719
<v Speaker 1>reason that one of the reasons they think they have

0:05:08.839 --> 0:05:11.080
<v Speaker 1>the cask is um so that it can kind of

0:05:11.160 --> 0:05:14.520
<v Speaker 1>run headlong through the forest without hurting its head. But

0:05:14.560 --> 0:05:19.520
<v Speaker 1>then also, um, those those thick, heavy feathers also protect

0:05:19.520 --> 0:05:22.960
<v Speaker 1>the body too from getting stabbed by thorns and things

0:05:23.000 --> 0:05:26.920
<v Speaker 1>like that. That's right, so let's should we take a break. Yeah,

0:05:27.040 --> 0:05:29.200
<v Speaker 1>let's all right. We'll talk more about the deadly cast

0:05:29.200 --> 0:05:54.120
<v Speaker 1>a wary right after this. Okay, chuck um, So we're

0:05:54.120 --> 0:05:56.680
<v Speaker 1>talking about the deadly cast a wary, which I mean,

0:05:57.800 --> 0:06:00.920
<v Speaker 1>it is deadly, but I don't I don't think it's

0:06:00.960 --> 0:06:04.279
<v Speaker 1>any more deadly. It's much less deadly even um or,

0:06:04.320 --> 0:06:07.920
<v Speaker 1>you're much less likely to die by a castawary than

0:06:08.000 --> 0:06:10.360
<v Speaker 1>you are from saying like getting infection from a dog

0:06:10.400 --> 0:06:13.479
<v Speaker 1>bite or something like that. Right. Statistically speaking, yeah, I

0:06:13.480 --> 0:06:17.480
<v Speaker 1>mean we we shouldn't disparage the castawary is deadly, like

0:06:17.880 --> 0:06:19.839
<v Speaker 1>they can kill and they have those sharp claws, but

0:06:19.839 --> 0:06:24.039
<v Speaker 1>they're not aggressive generally. They're not after you. Generally, if

0:06:24.080 --> 0:06:27.680
<v Speaker 1>you come upon them while they're while they have laid

0:06:27.680 --> 0:06:30.159
<v Speaker 1>their eggs or something, you may be in trouble, but

0:06:30.440 --> 0:06:33.560
<v Speaker 1>they generally want to stay away from people. Um. There

0:06:33.640 --> 0:06:36.640
<v Speaker 1>is another video that's pretty a little frightening. If they

0:06:36.640 --> 0:06:38.279
<v Speaker 1>would have put like scary music to it, it it would

0:06:38.279 --> 0:06:40.239
<v Speaker 1>have helped. But there was a woman on the beach

0:06:40.240 --> 0:06:43.080
<v Speaker 1>in Australia, I guess, and she filmed the whole thing.

0:06:43.480 --> 0:06:46.800
<v Speaker 1>But this castawary was just walking toward her and she's

0:06:46.839 --> 0:06:49.520
<v Speaker 1>walking backwards and it keeps coming and it's pecking at

0:06:49.560 --> 0:06:53.560
<v Speaker 1>the phone. But after having seen that other video, I'm

0:06:53.600 --> 0:06:56.599
<v Speaker 1>just like on edge waiting for this thing to jump

0:06:56.720 --> 0:07:00.960
<v Speaker 1>up and slice her stomach open. It's intimidating and it's

0:07:00.960 --> 0:07:03.840
<v Speaker 1>a very large bird. And when it's coming at you

0:07:03.839 --> 0:07:07.240
<v Speaker 1>with those kind of crazy eyes and its heads duck

0:07:07.240 --> 0:07:09.160
<v Speaker 1>and back and forth and it's kind of pecking at you,

0:07:09.560 --> 0:07:13.200
<v Speaker 1>it seems like a velociraptor in that moment. Yeah, I

0:07:13.200 --> 0:07:16.440
<v Speaker 1>can imagine. Um. So, yeah, I think it's more just

0:07:16.480 --> 0:07:19.160
<v Speaker 1>like it's remarkable that a bird can kill you and

0:07:19.280 --> 0:07:22.440
<v Speaker 1>has before that, than it is like actually like a

0:07:22.480 --> 0:07:27.160
<v Speaker 1>super deadly bird. What's the deal with that wattle? They're

0:07:27.160 --> 0:07:30.720
<v Speaker 1>not sure, but one of the theories is that it's

0:07:30.800 --> 0:07:35.360
<v Speaker 1>basically like a current mood indicator, like current mood effervescent,

0:07:35.880 --> 0:07:39.800
<v Speaker 1>like a mood bring. It changes color brightness with their mood. Yeah,

0:07:39.880 --> 0:07:43.080
<v Speaker 1>that's not too bad, um. Or to maybe say like

0:07:43.160 --> 0:07:49.400
<v Speaker 1>I'm I'm robust and uh maybe like sexually perhaps, sure,

0:07:49.600 --> 0:07:53.800
<v Speaker 1>like check on my wattle exactly. They're also known as

0:07:53.840 --> 0:07:58.320
<v Speaker 1>a keystone species because what they do is they eat fruit,

0:07:58.480 --> 0:08:01.360
<v Speaker 1>tons of fruit, and they walk around and cover a

0:08:01.360 --> 0:08:05.680
<v Speaker 1>great area and poop that seed out. Uh. It goes

0:08:05.760 --> 0:08:08.600
<v Speaker 1>right through their digestive tracks, and they deposit the seeds

0:08:08.640 --> 0:08:11.520
<v Speaker 1>all over the place. So you get a much more

0:08:11.640 --> 0:08:17.040
<v Speaker 1>diverse uh fruit habitat in areas where they are popular. Yeah,

0:08:17.280 --> 0:08:19.520
<v Speaker 1>because yeah, I mean they're they're not only spreading the

0:08:19.520 --> 0:08:21.360
<v Speaker 1>seeds around when they poop it out. It's got all

0:08:21.360 --> 0:08:23.720
<v Speaker 1>sorts of nutrients to grow with, and it's just a

0:08:23.800 --> 0:08:30.640
<v Speaker 1>great great um uh commence all lists set up, I guess,

0:08:32.120 --> 0:08:36.480
<v Speaker 1>uh They also are pretty stealth. They have this apparently

0:08:36.520 --> 0:08:39.319
<v Speaker 1>their call it's so low it's just on the edge

0:08:39.320 --> 0:08:42.040
<v Speaker 1>of human hearing, so you may not even hear them

0:08:42.040 --> 0:08:46.000
<v Speaker 1>coming at you. Yeah, and apparently though, like you can

0:08:46.040 --> 0:08:48.000
<v Speaker 1>feel it in your chest if you happen to be

0:08:48.080 --> 0:08:52.000
<v Speaker 1>near one when they call, like it rumbles in your chest.

0:08:53.280 --> 0:08:57.360
<v Speaker 1>I love it. These things are great. Um. Did we

0:08:57.400 --> 0:09:00.400
<v Speaker 1>ever say how big they get? Chuck? Uh? Yeah, he

0:09:00.440 --> 0:09:04.880
<v Speaker 1>said six six six and or so. Yeah, that's just

0:09:04.960 --> 0:09:07.400
<v Speaker 1>so enormous. But what I thought was really interesting is

0:09:07.840 --> 0:09:12.920
<v Speaker 1>um and at the very least the Southern castawary species. Uh,

0:09:12.280 --> 0:09:16.360
<v Speaker 1>the female is about a hundred and seventy pounds. The

0:09:16.400 --> 0:09:19.679
<v Speaker 1>males are a hundred and twenty five pounds, and even

0:09:19.679 --> 0:09:22.920
<v Speaker 1>more interesting, the males are the ones that actually raise

0:09:23.480 --> 0:09:26.720
<v Speaker 1>the hatchlings. Did you know that? Well, I didn't until

0:09:26.800 --> 0:09:28.440
<v Speaker 1>I mean, I knew nothing about this thing until I

0:09:28.480 --> 0:09:31.760
<v Speaker 1>looked into it. But yeah, the female basically lazy eggs

0:09:31.760 --> 0:09:35.679
<v Speaker 1>and it's like, my work here is done. It's on you, yep,

0:09:37.000 --> 0:09:39.839
<v Speaker 1>raise the kids, and the males do. They raise these kids,

0:09:40.120 --> 0:09:43.439
<v Speaker 1>and the female goes off in mates with more males

0:09:43.520 --> 0:09:47.280
<v Speaker 1>other males, And it makes total sense from a natural

0:09:47.360 --> 0:09:52.520
<v Speaker 1>selection standpoint, um, because that just means that more castawary

0:09:52.600 --> 0:09:55.640
<v Speaker 1>chicks can be born, the more female cast wary can

0:09:55.679 --> 0:09:58.839
<v Speaker 1>go off and and mate with more male castawaries, as

0:09:58.840 --> 0:10:01.560
<v Speaker 1>long as the males are the ones raising the chicks.

0:10:01.559 --> 0:10:04.560
<v Speaker 1>That's pretty great, great idea, and it's great because their

0:10:04.640 --> 0:10:09.400
<v Speaker 1>numbers are dwindling. All three species are vulnerable or near threatened.

0:10:10.400 --> 0:10:12.000
<v Speaker 1>Of course, humans have a lot to do with this

0:10:12.120 --> 0:10:16.200
<v Speaker 1>loss of habitat because we're growing into their territory or

0:10:16.200 --> 0:10:19.959
<v Speaker 1>they're getting hit by cars stuff like that. Um, dogs

0:10:20.000 --> 0:10:24.400
<v Speaker 1>apparently if it's a young dog or a small dog,

0:10:24.520 --> 0:10:28.520
<v Speaker 1>the cassowary, Uh, like, there are dog attacks on record,

0:10:28.559 --> 0:10:30.719
<v Speaker 1>but if the dog gets bigger, they can be a

0:10:30.760 --> 0:10:35.560
<v Speaker 1>threat to the cassowary. Yeah, especially young cassowaries. Yeah, it's

0:10:35.559 --> 0:10:38.680
<v Speaker 1>all size. It's like whoever shoop up is the one threatened.

0:10:39.240 --> 0:10:43.360
<v Speaker 1>It's the law of nature, that's right. So there are

0:10:43.400 --> 0:10:47.280
<v Speaker 1>people working um to keep the cassowaries around, make sure

0:10:47.320 --> 0:10:49.600
<v Speaker 1>they don't go extinct. And like you said, it's typically

0:10:49.720 --> 0:10:52.679
<v Speaker 1>human encroachments. So people are buying back some of their

0:10:52.800 --> 0:10:56.199
<v Speaker 1>native habitats and just trying to set them off as

0:10:56.240 --> 0:11:00.120
<v Speaker 1>preserves and building ways around roadways, which is another big ing.

0:11:00.440 --> 0:11:03.480
<v Speaker 1>We should do a short stuff on that sometime, basically

0:11:03.559 --> 0:11:08.839
<v Speaker 1>like nature highways that are overpasses in the woods, over

0:11:09.280 --> 0:11:13.319
<v Speaker 1>roads that go through the woods, and this is pretty cool. Yeah,

0:11:13.800 --> 0:11:15.920
<v Speaker 1>and maybe maybe we just did the short stuff on

0:11:15.920 --> 0:11:18.520
<v Speaker 1>it just now. I don't know if there's much more

0:11:18.559 --> 0:11:20.520
<v Speaker 1>to say about it, but I just think it's amazing looking.

0:11:20.600 --> 0:11:23.400
<v Speaker 1>I've seen pictures of them. They just look like grass

0:11:23.480 --> 0:11:27.199
<v Speaker 1>covered overpasses, almost like what are overpasses are going to

0:11:27.320 --> 0:11:31.319
<v Speaker 1>look like in when there's no more people left to

0:11:31.880 --> 0:11:35.439
<v Speaker 1>look like the last of us are Station eleven. Sure

0:11:36.880 --> 0:11:39.520
<v Speaker 1>you got anything else and did anything else? Well, since

0:11:39.559 --> 0:11:43.120
<v Speaker 1>we've got nothing else, everybody. This owe to Cassowaries is out.

0:11:46.679 --> 0:11:49.000
<v Speaker 1>Stuff you Should Know is a production of I Heart Radio.

0:11:49.520 --> 0:11:52.000
<v Speaker 1>For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the i heart

0:11:52.080 --> 0:11:55.000
<v Speaker 1>Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your

0:11:55.000 --> 0:11:55.760
<v Speaker 1>favorite shows.