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Billabong Sanctuary
To
see a Cassowary in the wild is a rare privilege, don't spoil it by endangering
the bird. Photography usually entails extended contact with the bird and in the
case of an endangered bird is just not a moral alternative.
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Perfectly good pictures of captive birds can be taken. This
is the female from a captive pair at the Billabong Sanctuary some 20 km south
of Townsville. I spent several hours here watching the Cassowary.
Once
a day they feed the Cassowary bananas and other fruits. The day I was there the
birds refused to eat. This may have been because two young boys walked around
the far side of the pen causing the female to jump at the fence. |
The pair at the Billabong Sanctuary are nesting. Here is a
shot of the male sitting on the eggs. The Sanctuary has managed to produce one
chick in the past. Chicks reared here will be distributed to other sanctuaries
to build a breeding captive population. At present there is no plan to release
these birds into the wild.
I wonder why an approach like that of the
Little Desert Lodge captive breeding program is not considered. Perhaps it is
because the Cassowary chick unlike the precocious Malleefowl chick spend up to
12 months in the care of the male. By that time it would be too acclimated to
humans. |
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This picture gives you some idea of the size of the huge foot
which makes a print up to 180 mm in diameter. Notice there are three forward
pointing toes.
When threaten the Cassowary will attack a human by
jumping at them or kicking. Several weeks before I arrived at Mission Beach a
Cassowary in the Licula Forest picnic area had become so aggressive, the
Rangers closed the area. Had it not been reopened I would have missed seeing
this bird in the wild. |
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The female Cassowary laying an egg. When she got
off the nest a bright green egg had been added to the clutch. After a few hours
it will darken like the rest of the eggs. In the picture below the new egg is
right in the middle at the back of the clutch.
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