Southern cassowary

남방화식조

The southern cassowary is a big flightless bird about 1.8 m tall with a helmet-like casque and a dagger-like claw on each foot. It is shy, but it eats fruit and spreads seeds, helping the rainforest grow.

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At a glance

Class: Birds
Lives in: Rainforests of Papua New Guinea
Diet: Plant eater (herbivore)
Weight: about 50 kg
Top speed: about 50 km/h
Lifespan: up to about 40 years
Conservation status: Least Concern (IUCN LC)
Habitat: rainforests

Quick answers

Where does the Southern cassowary live?

It lives in rainforests. On the globe you can find it near Rainforests of Papua New Guinea.

How big is the Southern cassowary?

It grows to about 50 kg.

What does the Southern cassowary eat?

Its diet: plant eater (herbivore).

How fast is the Southern cassowary?

It can reach about 50 km/h.

How long does the Southern cassowary live?

It can live up to about 40 years.

Is the Southern cassowary endangered?

It is listed as Least Concern (IUCN LC).

The southern cassowary is a huge, flightless, mostly black bird of the rainforests of New Guinea, nearby Indonesia and northeastern Australia. It stands about 1.5 to 1.8 metres tall, has a bright blue face and neck, red wattles, and a horn-like brown casque, or helmet, on top of its head.

Cassowaries are shy and usually keep out of sight, but they are among the largest birds alive, outweighed on average only by the ostrich. Each foot has a dagger-like claw up to 12 centimetres long. They swallow whole fruit and spread the seeds far away, which helps rainforest trees grow. In Australia the species is listed as Endangered.

What does a cassowary look like?

Its feathers look like stiff, bristly hair. The bare skin of the head and neck is blue, and the neck carries two red wattles that can hang up to 18 centimetres. The casque is 13 to 20 centimetres tall. Females are larger and more brightly coloured than males. Chicks are soft, fuzzy and striped, and young birds are brown before their feathers darken. Their three-toed feet are thick and powerful.

Cassowary the gardener

The cassowary is a ratite, a group of flightless birds that includes the emu, ostrich, rhea and kiwi. Its closest relative is the emu. By eating fallen fruit and passing the seeds far from the parent tree, it works as a gardener of the rainforest. People have traded live cassowaries for hundreds of years, which is one reason it is hard to know where each population originally belonged.

Fun facts

By swallowing fruit whole and dropping the seeds far away, it helps rainforest trees spread.
Each foot has a dagger-like claw up to 12 centimetres long.
Only the ostrich weighs more, on average, among living birds.
The helmet-like casque on its head is 13 to 20 centimetres tall.
The female is bigger and brighter than the male.