If you could combine a turkey, a peacock and a dinosaur,
you might get something that looks like this weird thing.
"You are bizarre."
You might find them bobbing around in the rainforests
of Australia and New Guinea.
This is a cassowary.
"You're weird."
And some people call it the most
dangerous bird in the world.
Don’t make any sudden moves.
We’re getting up close with the feisty cassowary.
The cassowary is an insular ratite or, simply put,
a large flightless bird.
It has a glossy, black-feathered body,
a red neck-wattle and a bright blue face.
12,000 years ago as humans began to evolve and adapt,
most ratites had already gone extinct.
The few that survive have exceptional grit.
At 2 m (6.5 ft) tall and weighing over 76 kg (167 lbs)
the cassowary may not be
the tallest or heaviest bird around.
So what makes it the most dangerous bird in the world?
A cassowary can leap up to
2 m (6.5 ft) high with its muscular legs.
That’s about as tall as a horse.
Its feet are equipped with three sharp,
dagger-like talons.
Yep, that'll do it for me.
And the middle one can grow as long as 10 cm (4 in).
When these angry, powerful creatures spring into the air,
they can kick you with both feet at once.
That blow could slice right through you,
causing more than a few puncture wounds,
bone fractures and deep skin lacerations.
But you would have to be extremely unlucky to get
kicked by a cassowary.
Usually, an angry cassowary will try to peck,
head butt or charge you.
The rest of the time, they like to mind their own business.
These giant birds are shy and reclusive
until you approach their young or enter their territory.
Of the 221 known cassowary attacks,
150 have involved humans.
And most of them happened because the human seemed
to be refusing to give the bird food.
Over the years, ill-advised humans
have attempted to feed cassowaries.
This has taught the bird to associate humans with food.
This misunderstanding,
coupled with shrinking habitat,
is usually at the heart of cassowary attacks.
But if you’re still hell-bent on befriending a cassowary,
you’ll have to do better than throwing it some scraps off
your barbecue.
Unlike their ostrich cousins,
cassowaries maintain their impressive bulk
on a diet of rainforest fruit.
That makes them the largest avian frugivore on the planet.
Many species of rainforest trees would disappear
without the cassowary
helping their seeds to disperse.
And if this bird keeps reminding you of this guy,
there’s an excellent reason why.
Scientists are still working out the exact
details of their evolutionary chain,
but these big birds are the last living link to dinosaurs.
The helmet-like casque on their heads
closely resembles that of a newly
discovered dinosaur species, the Corythoraptor jacobsi.
It is a modified cranial bone covered with keratin.
That’s the same protein our nails and hair are made of.
They even seem to be putting it to the same use
as their long-dead relatives did, communication.
We now know that these birds use their cranial casques
to capture and emit low frequency sounds.
Also used for socio-sexual displays,
the cassowary’s cranial casque is surprisingly flexible
and leather-like to the touch.
Alright, who's been touching the cassowary's
cranial casque?
And although they're usually anti-social,
cassowaries will hiss, rumble or whistle at each other
when absolutely necessary.
But that’s about as chatty as this bird ever gets.
The only close relationship a cassowary ever has
is with its father during the early part of its life.
While the female cassowary walks out on her three to five
eggs immediately after laying them,
the male spends 60 days incubating them.
Once they have hatched, young cassowaries learn
the ropes from their father,
following him around for up to 16 months.
But that’s a rare situation.
Usually, the father has had enough of the chicks
after 9 to 10 months.
Then he chases them off his territory.
"Let's go. It's time to move out."
Rainforest trees aren't the only
thing that depend on ancient birds like the cassowary.
Do you know that ostrich antibodies
could help fight COVID-19?
We've got that covered too, in another episode.
Slashing opponents with super sharp claws
and communicating through their cranial helmets
is what cassowaries do.
And that’s why they’re Crazy Creatures.