Cassowary

Cassowary

A Cassowary is a large flightless bird.  It is similar in size to the Emu, but the Cassowary is slightly shorter and somewhat heavier.  This group of large flightless birds include the Ostritch, the Emu, the Kiwi, and the Cassowary.  The group of birds is called Ratites.  They are pretty awesome in thier size.   As far as the Cassowary, it comes in 3 species.  The species are:  Southern Cassowary, Northern Cassowary, and the Dwarf Cassowary.  The Southern Cassowary and the Northern Cassowary can weigh around 100 lbs or a mass of 220 kg.  The Dwarf Cassowary weighs in at only 

40 or so lbs.  The Southern Cassowary can get to be up to 5.6 feet tall.  That is 1.7 meters tall.

The Cassowary is like a raptor dinosaur, is that it has a large claw on it's inside toe.  This claw is used for defense and for killing prey.  Although their prey is mostly insects and spiders.  Cassowaries also eat lots of different plant species.  It is estimated that they eat around 100 diffrent species of plant, especially ripe fruit from the plants.  The Cassowary keeps seeds in its gut for many hours so it can disperse seeds very effectively.  

The claw on the toe can be deadly.  A few years ago a Cassowary breeder or farmer fell down in his Cassowary pen.  He was killed by his own Cassowary.  He was an elderly man, living in Florida, when this happened.  Cassowaries are considered the most deadly bird to Man.

Cassowaries are endemic to some parts of Australia and New Guinea.