The article in Smithsonian started with a description of a Cassowary bearing down on the writer that had me gripping the sides of my seat.
Large, lumbering, angry, but, it turns out, merely intent on a mango that had fallen on the ground near him, the Cassowary looked like a giant, prehistoric turkey...which is to say, beyond ghastly. I must remember to avoid Mission Beach, Australia.
But so, reading on, I find that these birds are on the endangered list. Well, shouldn't they be? Looking and acting like vicious prehistoric turkeys? I've killed aphids for less than that.
But reading still further (I couldn't put the article down, I tell you), I found out that this is an odd breed to begin with. This is a breed where the male birds rear the chicks. It seems that the female lays the eggs, and then goes on her carefree way (for instance to hunt down mangoes that have fallen out of trees). The male rushes in, builds a simple nest and incubates the eggs for about two months. After the chicks are born, the male shows them what to do for up to a year. Then, as it goes in the animal kingdom, at this very tender age, the chicks are tossed out on their ear to get on with life.
Cassowaries can live for forty to fifty years. That feels like a really long time to survive as a flightless bird.
But see, I'm wondering if it's precisely because they are raised by males rather than Mommy that these birds have coped so poorly as to be on the endangered list. Even though the cassowary is ranked as the world's most dangerous bird, this relative of the emu and ostrich is losing ground fast....
Daddy Dearest? Tales of ineptitude?
Or tales of wanting/needing Mommy's love from pre-hatching, but never getting it? Mom never ever appearing, ever? Do these poor. motherless birds even understand the concept of 'Mom'? Maybe that's why the mother cassowary has her eggs and runs off. She doesn't have a clue?
But then I check Wikipedia which informs me that emus are 'raised' by their fathers. Hmmm.
Ostrich are raised by both parents--so this must make for a really well-adjusted bird.
The article does mention that cassowaries live in a really hard part of the world to exist--
This all evokes such feelings of dismay, thank god I can't just rush over to Mission Beach, Australia and offer to help.