Special Edition: Day of the Cassowary

When asked, Walter answered consistently that the highlight of this trip was the day at the Qantas Founders Museum in Longreach. That was until today!

The Cassowary is known as both elusive and dangerous and whilst we can’t vouch for the latter – we haven’t experienced or witnessed any threatening attacks – it is not something everyone gets to see.

According to Wikipedia ‘Cassowaries are very wary of humans, but if provoked they are capable of inflicting serious, even fatal, injuries to both dogs and people. It has often been labeled “the world’s most dangerous bird”.’

We’d been excited to see one crossing the road about 50m in front of us as we left Cape Tribulation. And seeing a couple of chicks relatively close to the road yesterday was exciting. Little did we expect that we would see one from our balcony this morning – I was standing outside and Walter was in the bathroom when I looked up and there he was. For such a big bird, they really are quiet. All I could do was say “come here”. Fortunately he didn’t question or delay and managed to see him before he escaped into the bush.

And that was only the start of it. An hour later, we were standing on a tiny sand bank next to the river on the property where we were staying (100 acres in total) – I turned around and there he was! Again, he’d moved with such stealth that we had no idea where he’d appeared from. Hearts beating, we watched, photographed and videoed the beautiful creature as he preened himself. We could’ve reached out and touched him.