Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio,
Speaker 1: Hey brain Stuff Lauren Vogelbaum here. The cassowary is a massive,
Speaker 1: flightless bird that's been called the most dangerous bird in
Speaker 1: the world, the reason being that it could seriously injure
Speaker 1: or kill a human or pet in an instant with
Speaker 1: its deadly claws. And they're very quick. They are powerful
Speaker 1: legs let them run at about thirty miles an hour
Speaker 1: more fifty kilometers an hour through dense forest underbrush. In Florida.
Speaker 1: Cassowaries are listed as Class two animals, along with alligators
Speaker 1: and wildcats due to the risk they pose, which means
Speaker 1: anyone who wishes to own one must pass numerous tests
Speaker 1: and get a special permit from local authorities. Alike their
Speaker 1: emu cousins, cassowaries are rattites, or birds that have flat
Speaker 1: breastbones and are unable to fly, and they boast bristly feathers,
Speaker 1: a vivid blue face, two red bottles hanging from their neck,
Speaker 1: and a prominent helmet or cast atop their head. Three
Speaker 1: different species of cassuaries are native to tropical forests of
Speaker 1: Australia and Southeast Asia, although size varies across those three species,
Speaker 1: the Southern, Northern, and dwarf. They can stand up to
Speaker 1: six and a half feet tall that's two meters, and
Speaker 1: weigh as much as a hundred and thirty pounds or
Speaker 1: sixty kilos. If you happen to be familiar with swans,
Speaker 1: this is the equivalent of about six swans, presumably stacked
Speaker 1: in a cassowary shaped trench coat. They cannot fly, but
Speaker 1: they do have those muscular legs, and that brings us
Speaker 1: to the hazardous point of these birds their inner claw.
Speaker 1: For the article this episode is based on, has to
Speaker 1: Fork spoke with Rick Schwartz, a global ambassador for California's
Speaker 1: San Diego Zoo, which currently houses several Southern cassuaries in
Speaker 1: its Safari park. He explained the claw on the inner
Speaker 1: of each foot is what is so impressive between the
Speaker 1: three species. That claw is very sharp and can range
Speaker 1: from three to five inches or seven to twelve centimeters long,
Speaker 1: and the cassowary will use these sharp claws and their
Speaker 1: powerful kick to defend themselves. It's often stated that they
Speaker 1: can eviscerate a human in a single kit, though there
Speaker 1: is no record of this happening. They also have a
Speaker 1: lot of weight to throw around. A Swart said. Cassowaries
Speaker 1: are the heaviest bird in Australia and the southern cassuary
Speaker 1: is the second heaviest in the world. The world's heaviest
Speaker 1: bird is the ostrich. With that in mind, they also
Speaker 1: have very small wings. When stretched out, their wings extend
Speaker 1: less than a foot or point three meters from their body.
Speaker 1: A cassowary has dense, black feathers that are long and thin,
Speaker 1: compared with the wide and shapely feathers of a flighted bird.
Speaker 1: A Schwartz said, from a distance, some people even say
Speaker 1: the feathers of the cassowary look more like hair. The
Speaker 1: cassowaries feathers are not suitable for flight, but they work
Speaker 1: very well for a ground dwelling bird living in a
Speaker 1: forest ecosystem. The longer, thinner feathers helped direct water away
Speaker 1: from the body and also protect the bird's body from
Speaker 1: low branches, but sharp twigs and thorns. Meanwhile, they are
Speaker 1: prominent facial features. That cask and those wattles are something
Speaker 1: of a mystery. Evolutionarily speaking, the cask or that helmet
Speaker 1: is made of keratin, the same protein that birds feathers, nails,
Speaker 1: and beaks are made of and our hair and nails
Speaker 1: too for that matter. Schwartz explained. The outer covering is
Speaker 1: thick and hard, but the inside is very porous. The
Speaker 1: purpose of the cask is not completely understood, but several
Speaker 1: theories exist, including that it can help amplify vocalizations, serve
Speaker 1: as head protection as the bird pushes headfirst through dense forest,
Speaker 1: or it may be another way for the birds to
Speaker 1: display age and vitality. As for those bright red wattles,
Speaker 1: Schwartz explained, of the three species of castaways, only the
Speaker 1: northern and southern cassuaries have wattles. It's thought that they
Speaker 1: can help communicate the bird's current demeanor, indicate an individual
Speaker 1: bird's vitality to other cassawaries, or give other cues and
Speaker 1: communications only known by cassuaries at this time. For as
Speaker 1: fearsome as they may seem, cassuaries are frugivores, meaning they
Speaker 1: feed on fruits, which makes them very important to their
Speaker 1: surrounding ecosystem. Schwartz explained. As they eat fruit, they walk
Speaker 1: around and pass the seeds through their digestive tract. Thus
Speaker 1: they're droppings deposit seeds that are surrounded in natural fertilizer,
Speaker 1: helping to spread the diversity of plants in their region.
Speaker 1: They're considered a keystone species due to their large size.
Speaker 1: They're able to spread larger seeds than most other birds,
Speaker 1: and those claws help them dig deep in the leaf
Speaker 1: litter for fallen fruit that other species might miss. But
Speaker 1: don't worry too much about those claws. You'll probably never
Speaker 1: encounter a cassuwary in the wild, Schwartz said. What they're
Speaker 1: excellent hearing. They will hear you coming long before you
Speaker 1: even know they're there, and they will most likely disappear
Speaker 1: into the forest to avoid you. However, should you ever
Speaker 1: come across one in the wild, it's best to give
Speaker 1: them plenty of room and not approach them or try
Speaker 1: to feed them. Should you happen to be near one,
Speaker 1: though you probably won't hear it, however you might feel it,
Speaker 1: and that's because cassuaries call is Schwartz said, a deep,
Speaker 1: low frequency, booming sound. It's the lowest known call of
Speaker 1: any bird, and it's so low that it borders on
Speaker 1: being inaudible to the human ear. If you are nearby
Speaker 1: when it does this call, you can feel the vibrations
Speaker 1: in your chest. Female cassuaries lay large, beautiful eggs that
Speaker 1: typically arranging color from pastel mint to lime green to
Speaker 1: vibrant avocado. But after they do they abandon the clutch
Speaker 1: and it's up to the male birds to incubate the
Speaker 1: eggs and care for the chicks. After they hatch, a
Speaker 1: short said, the female returns to her solitary life and
Speaker 1: does not participate in incubating the eggs or caring for
Speaker 1: the young. This may be a way to allow her
Speaker 1: to have several clutches of eggs in one breeding season
Speaker 1: with different males, thus diversifying her genetics into the next generation.
Speaker 1: But cassawari's population is dwindling. An organization called the International
Speaker 1: Union for Conservation of Nature keeps the world's most comprehensive
Speaker 1: inventory of the global conservation status of planted animal species,
Speaker 1: and they list all three species of cassowary as either
Speaker 1: vulnerable or near threatened. Schwartz explained, unlike many species, their
Speaker 1: biggest challenges are the loss of habitat due to human
Speaker 1: population growth, roads being built causing car strikes, and human
Speaker 1: introduced species of animals rating nests. The good news is
Speaker 1: that the governments of the country's cassawaries call home are
Speaker 1: stepping up their conservation efforts. For example, dogs will kill
Speaker 1: young cassowaries. Humans have sometimes hunted the birds for their
Speaker 1: meat and stunning feathers. There may be less than a
Speaker 1: thousand cassowaries left in the wild, but as Schwartz said,
Speaker 1: groups are working to protect and restore cassowaries habitats as
Speaker 1: well to create safe passage for these and other rainforest
Speaker 1: creatures by a strategic buy back of rainforest properties and
Speaker 1: the regeneration of damaged rainforest. Today's episode is based on
Speaker 1: the article the cassowary is the World's most dangerous bird
Speaker 1: on housetofworks dot com, written by Wendy Bowman. Rain Stuff
Speaker 1: is production of iHeart Radio in partnership with how stuff
Speaker 1: works dot com, and it's produced by Tyler Playing Before.
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