Portrait of a Cassowary (Casuarius casuarius)
Gerhard photographing a Cassowary in the rainforest near Kuranda. photo by Steve Parish
The Cassowary (Casuarius casuarius) is the largest native animal in Australia’s tropical rainforests.They grow to two metres in height and over 60kg in weight. Their diet consists of fruit, fungi, snails, insects, frogs, snakes and other small animals. In Queensland this prehistoric looking bird is critically endangered. This portrait of a large cassowary shows the horn-like but soft and spongy crest called a casque on their heads, up to 18 cm. Used to batter through underbrush, buy possibly used to amplifiy deep sounds.The Casques play a role in either sound reception or acoustic communication. The southern cassowary produce very-low frequency sounds,which may aid in communication in dense rainforest.This “boom” is the lowest known bird call, and is on the edge of human hearing.
