Southern Cassowary
Other common names: Double wattled/Two wattled/Australian Cassowary
It has hard and stiff plumage, a brown casque, blue face and neck, red nape and two red wattles hanging down its throat. The three-toed feet are thick and powerful, equipped with a lethal dagger-like claw up to 12 cm on the inner toe. The plumage is sexually monomorphic, but the female is dominant and larger with a longer casque and brighter-colored bare parts. The immature bird has plain brown plumage. It is the largest member of the cassowary family and is the second heaviest bird on earth, at a maximum size estimated at 85 kilograms and 190 centimetres. Normally this species ranges from 127 to 170 centimetres, with females averaging 58 kilograms and males averaging 29 to 34 kilograms.
Eight subspecies (casuarius, tricarunculatus, bistriatus, lateralis, sclaterii, johnsonii, aruensis and bicarunculatus) traditionally recognized, but good evidence for their validity lacking. Monotypic.
The Southern Cassowary is distributed in tropical rainforests of Indonesia, New Guinea and northeastern Australia, and it prefers elevations below 1,100 m in Australia, and 500 m on New Guinea. Most of New Guinea except north coast and highlands; Aru Is (E Indonesia); two isolated populations in NE Queensland (Australia); also Seram, where presumably introduced.
Lowland tropical forest.
It forages on the forest floor for fallen fruit and is capable of safely digesting some fruits toxic to other animals, particularly the cassowary fruit. They also eat fungi, and some insects and small vertebrates.
The Southern Cassowary is a solitary bird, that pairs only in breeding season, which takes place in late winter or spring. The male builds a nest on the ground; a mattress of herbaceous plant material 5 to 10 centimetres thick and up to 100 centimetres wide. This is thick enough to let moisture drain away from the eggs. It is situated in a sheltered area among tall grass or similar cover. He also incubates the eggs and raises the chicks. A clutch of three or four eggs are laid measuring 138 by 95 millimetres. They have a granulated surface and are initially bright pea-green in colour although they fade with age.