• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Jennifer Marohasy

Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

  • Home
  • About
  • Publications
  • Speaker
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Temperatures
  • Subscribe

Close Encounter of the Cassowary Kind

July 15, 2008 By neil

CassChick1a.jpg

Breakfast at Cooper Creek Wilderness took a dramatic turn this morning with the unexpected arrival of a distressed cassowary chick. Not more than a month old, its separation from its family unit was cause for great concern. It ran about whistling for its father, but without response.

The image (above) shows the striped pattern providing a degree of concealment amongst the forest ground-cover. The second image shows the young cassowary, standing on our concrete verandah. After taking the shot, the chick then moved into the kitchen, which has no doors and then onwards to explore other aspects of our dwelling.

Perhaps ten minutes after its arrival, the dad made its presence known with another two chicks in tow. Re-united, the family walked quietly off into the wilderness, allowing our own kids to re-focus on readying themselves for the start of school’s third term.

CassChick2.jpg

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Plants and Animals

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Libby says

    July 15, 2008 at 5:29 pm

    That’s a great story Neil. I’m glad there was a happy ending to it. Do you have a local group that cares for orphaned and injured wildlife? Do they get many cassowary chicks?

  2. Neil Hewett says

    July 15, 2008 at 10:00 pm

    Hi Libby,

    Yes, we have dedicated wildlife rescue volunteers, waking themselves up throughout the night to feed orphaned mammals in particular.

    As a community, we have had some inspiring success stories, but these have been overshadowed by catastrophic disasters, like the highly protected feral pig population, whose administratively enhanced competitiveness ensures that virtually all cassowary chicks will not survive to adulthood.

  3. Libby says

    July 16, 2008 at 11:39 am

    Thanks Neil. Nothing like putting hard work into rescuing an animal and having it killed by something that shouldn’t be there. I gather there is no culling program for pigs given the location? Has there been a noticeable decline in cassowarys there?

  4. Neil Hewett says

    July 16, 2008 at 12:23 pm

    Libby,

    For every cassowary, there may be as many as 200 pigs. This reduces the cassowary carrying capacity of the landscape by around five times.

  5. spangled drongo says

    July 16, 2008 at 5:53 pm

    Neil,
    I know how you feel. I dont have a pig problem here [thank God, I’ve had one elsewhere in the past] but not short on dogs, cats and foxes. There is now a complete lack of will by the authorities to do anything about the problem and the locals have been told that we need about 8,000 letters of written agreement before we can bait privately. A logistical nightmare.
    I can only trap which is very time consuming and indiscriminate whereas 10-80 in meat is much more
    target specific.

  6. spangled drongo says

    July 16, 2008 at 6:01 pm

    If these real, fixable, environmental problems were addressed by govts instead of the will o’ the wisp AGW prolems they are spending billions on and creating more enviro problems, they could be cured for a fraction of the price.

  7. Libby says

    July 16, 2008 at 7:53 pm

    Hi Neil,

    Presumably these somewhat charmed pigs do a lot of damage to the vegetation and overall “value” of the area (not to mention chowing down on regular meals of stripey chick drumsticks). Are the pigs the main feral animal problem for the natives? I remember you mentioning dogs one time.

  8. Neil Hewett says

    July 16, 2008 at 8:06 pm

    Yes Libby, pigs beyond all others, with cane toads a distant second. Dogs are so easily managed that their continued mismanagement is of particular frustration, but underlying all of these concerns is the decadent hand of human ineptitude and inaction.

Primary Sidebar

Latest

Exquisite

December 8, 2019

Why Deny the Beautiful Coral Reefs Fringing Stone Island?

November 21, 2019

Experts Now Agree: Is Acropora Coral at Stone Island

November 19, 2019

My First Film: Beige Reef

November 14, 2019

Senate Inquiry into Water Quality at the Great Barrier Reef: My Submission

November 8, 2019

Recent Comments

  • girlfriend on Why Deny the Beautiful Coral Reefs Fringing Stone Island?
  • slow to follow on Why Deny the Beautiful Coral Reefs Fringing Stone Island?
  • ianl on Why Deny the Beautiful Coral Reefs Fringing Stone Island?
  • Spotlight on green news & views: Tesla's cybertruck debuts to cheers & sneers; water worries | Patriots and Progressives on My First Film: Beige Reef
  • Korallivideosta ja sen ympäriltä | Roskasaitti on Why Deny the Beautiful Coral Reefs Fringing Stone Island?

Subscribe For News Updates

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
July 2008
M T W T F S S
« Jun   Aug »
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
28293031  

Archives

Footer

About Me

Jennifer Marohasy Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD has worked in industry and government. She is currently researching a novel technique for long-range weather forecasting funded by the B. Macfie Family Foundation. Read more

Subscribe For News Updates

Subscribe Me

Contact Me

To get in touch with Jennifer call 0418873222 or international call +61418873222.

Email: jennifermarohasy at gmail.com

Connect With Me

  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Copyright © 2014 - 2018 Jennifer Marohasy. All rights reserved. | Legal

Website by 46digital