Are you Casso..wary ?

in #nature7 years ago

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This is my mate Callum the Southern Cassowary from the largest family of birds in the world known as the ratites. And just like the biggest bloke in the Pub, he is not a bird ya wanna muck around with. Standing in at over 6 feet and weighing up to nearly 60kgs this bird is big enough to steal your missus and if you try and get her back he will slit your throat... literally ..... he has a 5 inch dagger like claw on his foot and no matter how many leg presses you do his legs would probably be more powerful because lets face it, if you can swim across rivers and even the sea with no hands you are doing alright ! And if you still aren't impressed he can jump 1.5 meters and run up to 50 km/h. Not bad for a bird ey ?

Although these guys come across as tough as f*@#, scientists believe there is less then 1500 of these guys left in the wild because ... you guessed it, we fucked there habitat and have cleared over 80% of their habitat in the last 100 years (yes we are cunts, I know). Also numbers have declined because of collisions with cars and also irresponsible dog owners have allowed their dogs to attack these amazing birds(feral dogs would more than likely play a part as well). More needs to be done for their protection, about 1/4 of their habitat has poor conservation protection and you may be thinking" why the hell do I care if they become extinct when they can kick the fuck out of me and steal my mrs"? Well they kinda are responsible for dispersing the seeds for several hundreds of plants by eating the fruits and shitting the seeds out. Gotta admit, Queensland would look pretty shit with out rain forest hey... and if that isn't good enough, they eat their own shit twice to disperse seeds better... that's Australia's funniest home video material right there !!!