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Whilst waiting for the Golden Bowerbird on our second trip to the bower we had a 45 minute interaction with one of the most unique birds in the world, the Southern Cassowary. A shy large flightless bird, 6 feet tall, 130-150 pounds, rather like the Emu but bigger and potentially far more dangerous. There are fewer than 2500 left in the wild.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Cassowary
They are essentially a relic of the dinosaur age, have a large sharp middle toe that can disembowel you/rip your throat open or stab you with it! but generally they get a bad press and only generally attack when threatened. My wife clearly believed this as she was making herself as small as possible while I was winking at her and snapping away The male of the species raises the young and you don't want to get in between a male and it's chicks!!
The "comb" on the head is believed to be used somehow to locate other birds (they have a territory of around 16 hectares). It is also used as protection for the head - lowered when running at speed through the rainforest.
She walked around us ranging from between 8 feet to only 4 feet away before wandering off. Hence the portrait shots as I only had the 300 f4 available. Full frame on the D800E.
Here is Sir David Attenborough's BBC Natural World special about them - watch the first few minutes at least to get an idea of what this amazing creature is like.
1.
2. Too close
3. Curious
A never to be repeated experience and certainly one for the bucket list ticked off.
Andy
Edited on Sep 18, 2013 at 03:21 AM · View previous versions
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