Cassowary Circus

... roll up, roll up ... for the fabulous ...
"CASSOWARY CIRCUS"

©All original artwork and photos are protected and may not be reproduced without the written permission of the Artist

Sal Badcock Studio & Gallery
Mission Beach, North Queensland, Australia
email Sal

click on the names to go to their photos

Big Betty
Buz
Thurston
Boris
Raider
Camilla
Lulu
Rebel

The Fantastic Cassowary

Once upon a time ... in an idyllic tropical paradise far away ... there came a mean and nasty cyclone called Larry.
Now, Larry came along and blew all of the leaves off all of the trees,
he broke off branches and he knocked down trees and generally caused havoc.
With all of this blowing, and knocking over and breaking, Larry destroyed not only the rain-forest also the special
fruit trees that grow there.
Before Larry came along, the cassowaries were happy.
They each lived in a patch of forest that was their very own.
They all had lots of rain-forest fruit to eat.
And life was pretty good.
The lady cassowaries cruised around looking for suitable boy cassowaries to wine and dine them, and to make them lovely nests to lay their eggs in, and to be loving and attentive partners. The ladies would then lay 3 or 4 beautiful pea green eggs and leave the boys to it.
After repeating this process a few more times with different partners. the girls all headed deep
into the rain-forest to the spectacular and ritzy

"De Luxe Rain Drops Spa For Lady Cassowaries"
Here they spent the rest of their time having their eyelashes curled, their toe-nails painted and their casques polished. Leaving the boys to do the hard work of sitting on the eggs, hatching them and taking care of the babies. (pretty good system I reckon).
But then ...
Along came Cyclone Larry ...
And suddenly, there was no fruit for them to eat, their walking tracks were destroyed.
And all of their special places were either gone or changed.
And ...
they were hungry
REALLY REALLY hungry.
What were they to do?
Why move in with the humans of course. What a fabulous idea!
Most of the cassowaries in the area have been identified and all have names. Every bird has unique markings, whether it is a bent casque, or kinky wattles. They can be recognised by these features which makes the job of keeping track of them much easier. This of course helps us keep an eye on the numbers of casso's in the area.
The cassowaries are very important to he wet tropics & Mission Beach and have a very special job to do in the forest.
They eat rainforest fruit & seeds, poo it out somewhere else, where the seeds germinate and new rainforest trees grow. Some of these seeds will only grow after they have been through a cassowary, and in some cases, the cassowary is the only critter big enough to distribute the really big seeds.
This is why they are so important for our beautiful forest.
They are our Rainforest Gardners.

These are my cass photos and their stories.

Big Betty
1st November 2005

Betty is the matriarch cassowary who lives at Garners Beach.
When well known local identity Freida Jörissen, or the "Cassowary Mother" as she was better known first met Big Betty in 1942,
Betty was already an adult cassowary. Therefore they estimate that she might be around 50 - 60 years old.
She is a magnificent lady and is easily recognisable, she has three wattles in stead of two.

Buz (aged 7 weeks)
1st November 2005

Last year, Marni & I had the pleasure of feeding 'Buz' the latest resident baby at the Ranger Station.
I first had to let Buz & his chicken friends out of their sleeping enclosure, then prepare his food (banana's, pawpaw & grapes).
Buz was abandoned by his dad and was lucky enough to be rescued.
He is around 7 weeks old and will stay with Ranger Shayne for at least a year before being released.
He shares his enclosure with 2 pet chickens to keep him company.

After feeding them, Marni & I sat in his enclosure and watched his antics for over an hour.
What a clown. He swam in his pond doing beautiful side stroke and he even completely submerged.
Then it was on for young and old. He got out, shook like a dog then ran flat out like a total mad thing round and round the pen,
kicking the trees, the chickens, in fact he kicked anything that looked like it needed kicking.

Then he would collapse and rest for a few minutes, flat out on the ground. Marni even took a photo of him with both legs in the air like a dog.
Then he'd be off again, tearing around like a complete drongo.
Talk about confused birds though.
He thinks he's a chicken and loves chook food, and his chicken's think they are cassowaries and try their hand, er feet, at kicking things too.

'Buz' (aged 10 months)
20th January 2006

The creature from the black lagoon.

Thurston and Baby Thurston
2nd March 2006

Thurston used to live at Licuala. He has tags because he was a bit of a naughty boy.
Someone was hand feeding him at Licuala Rainforest walk, and telling tourists what time to come and see the cassowary.
So of course, Thurston became fairly pushy, and had to be severely spoken too.
He then turned up at our place and lived here for a few months with his baby.
But unfortunately, no-one has seen either of them since the cyclone.
'Thurston Update'

16th October 2006
- after 7 months absence where everyone thought he was another cyclone victom, Thurston reappeared.
He just wandered up this afternoon, he looked pretty healthy.
It would appear that he and Raider are thinking of starting a family.

Boris and Boris Minor
1st May 2006

Boris & Boris Minor turned up after the cyclone. They used to walk across from James Road looking for food.
I haven't seen them here since they established feeding station at James Road .

(14 Feb 2007)
Boris was a model dad, and unlike many cassowary dads after the cyclone who kicked their kids out., Boris kept his.
Boris Minor is still in the area, he is now nearly adult size and starting to colour up.

Raider
1st May 2006

Raider appeared also after the cylone.
She was a shocking colour, all dusky and very very hopeful that we were going to give her something to eat.
Raider is one of Big Betty's daughters and has the trademark kinky wattle.
She has now moved in and is our resident female. We have an approved feeding station to help keep her going.

Camilla aged approx. 6 months
4th August 2006

Camilla arrived on the final day of 'Big Brother', hence the name - Marni wanted Camilla to win.
(I actually have a sneaking suspicion that Camilla is a boy, but I am sure he will get over it.)
Camilla's page with more candid moments and updates on his progress

Lulu
14 November 2006

Kim & I walked through Licuala rainforest this morning. It's the first time I have been there since the cyclone.
We met Lulu on the track, (not sure who she is really, but she needed a name).
She was wandering around having breakfast and took no notice of us at all. This is fabulous and means that no-one has been hand-feeding her.
She looked in reasonable condition but was a little dusky in colour, which probably means that life is not quite as easy as it was pre-Larry.

Rebel
30 December 2006

Marni woke me this morning (not a pretty sight) to tell me that we had a cassowary in our yard. And she was right.
I have not seen this one before, she has fine black fuzz all over her head and neck.

Why Rebel? Cos I'm not sure if she's a boy or a girl ....

Poor Rebel is in bad shape. She sits either under the grapefruit tree, or in our garden panting.
She is very very thin and stressed.
My thoughts are that the other older casso's are booting her out of the forest. She does not have anywhere to go.
And she seems to think that our little thicket is safe.
She doesn't go to bed until it is totally dark, then she goes into the thicket near the house. This is obviously her haven at the moment.

I have put our dogs paddling pond over near the thicket. She spends ages there trying to get into it to cool off.
It is horrible to see a creature so distressed.

'Rebel Update - 27th February 2007'

Rebel is back. This time she is happily eating the palm seeds that are falling of the trees.
Reckon it'll take an awful lot of golden cane seeds to fill a casso though.

'Rebel Update - 11th May 2007'

Rebel is back again. This time, she is obviously looking for food. There are no palm seeds or anything to bring her near the house.
My observations are that there is not much happening in the forest at the moment as far as fruit goes.

'every cassowary's an art critic...'

Home


Last year, Marni & I had the pleasure of feeding 'Buz' the latest resident baby at the Ranger Station. I first had to let Buz & his chicken friends out of their sleeping enclosure, then prepare his food (banana's, pawpaw & grapes). Buz was abandoned by his dad and was lucky enough to be rescued. He is around 7 weeks old and will stay with Ranger Shayne for at least a year before being released. He shares his enclosure with 2 pet chickens to keep him company.


After feeding them, Marni & I sat in his enclosure and watched his antics for over an hour. What a clown. He swam in his pond doing beautiful side stroke and he even completely submerged. Then it was on for young and old. He got out, shook like a dog then ran flat out like a total mad thing round and round the pen, kicking the trees, the chickens, in fact he kicked anything that looked like it needed kicking.


Then he would collapse and rest for a few minutes, flat out on the ground. Marni even took a photo of him with both legs in the air like a dog. Then he'd be off again, tearing around like a complete drongo. Talk about confused birds though. He thinks he's a chicken and loves chook food, and his chicken's think they are cassowaries and try their hand, er feet, at kicking things too.