Animal Diaries Archive

Cassowaries help our rainforests

18 May 2007

Welcome to another week in our beautiful bird department. This week we would like to take you to the rainforest and introduce to you five very large feathered friends we have here at Australia Zoo.

Our cassowaries, Rocky, Stomp, Babinda, Beepa and lastly Bedara. Seemingly striking with their brilliant blue and purple head and neck, and their red wattle the female usually is larger than the male. So there is no confusing Rocky and Beepa from the girls.

Cassowaries depend on rainforests for food, they rely on the hundreds of plant species that forests provide and in return they help the forests by spreading hundreds of seeds through their droppings.

The bird staff spends up to an hour a day filling their buckets full of chopped up tropical fruits which can weigh up to 15 kilos. They definitely eat well. Next time you visit these guys have a look at the biggest bowl of fruit salad you'll ever see.