IUCN threat status:

Vulnerable (VU)

Brief Summary

Read full entry
Cassowaries are usually solitary individuals, and males are subordinate to females if they meet. Females may lay several clutches of eggs during the breeding season that runs from June to October. These are laid directly onto the forest floor and the male then takes sole responsibility for their care. The male incubates the eggs for around 50 days, turning the eggs and only leaving his charges in order to drink. He cares for his offspring for up to 16 months, protecting them under his tail if threatened (4). Cassowaries fight by kicking out with their legs, they have a fearsome reputation but their diet is composed almost entirely of fruit. These birds are important dispersers of a number of rainforest seeds, ranging far in search of fruiting trees (4).

Trusted

Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike 3.0 (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0)

© Wildscreen

Source: ARKive

Belongs to 1 community

Disclaimer

EOL content is automatically assembled from many different content providers. As a result, from time to time you may find pages on EOL that are confusing.

To request an improvement, please leave a comment on the page. Thank you!