Camilla

The continuing story of
"Camilla Cassowary"

©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

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, but 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!

A work-in-progress of Camilla and Raider.

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.

Camilla aged approx. 6 months
4th August 2006

Little Camilla arrived on the final day of 'Big Brother',
hence the name - Marni wanted Camilla to win.
Camilla had been booted out by her Dad because there was no food in the forest. She was probably a lot older than she looked, but was small and stunted as a result of the cyclone and lack of food.
I had seen her a few days earlier, running through the trees, but not close enough to see him properly. Then she appeared at the tap getting a drink from a container that I had used to take fruit to the feeding station for the other cassowaries.

9th August 2006 She was very very cute. And it didn't take long to get her long to get used to being fed away from the others. Because of her size, we treated her differently and relaxed the rules of not being seen when putting food down. We changed that rule later when she was bigger and obviously going to survive. I added puppy food soaked in water to her diet with the fruit to give her extra protein. Very soon she was looking a whole lot healthier than she did when she first came to us.
Then there was the startling News just to hand ....
My friend Ranger Shayne had just been checking out my Camilla Files and, she reckoned that it was very likely that Camilla is a BOY...
apparently boys have little stick legs, little feet & longer skirts whereas the girlies have big chunky legs & feet and shorter skirts (tarts)
We decided to continue calling him Camilla as that was the name we were all used to, I am sure he'll get over it.

9th August 2006

Camilla continued to grow and thrive. He was such a little charactor, we were very much his family. After a few months of just hanging around here and hiding from the big cassowaries, he started disappearing for a few days, gradually growing into weeks. He was obviously off exploring the forest, and hopefully finding food and shelter.
We knew that he had to do this, and hopefully eventually he would find his own space in the forest, but it was a worrying time for me as his Mummy .. er Daddy Cassowary as I kept thinking the worst, but hoping for the best.
Eventually, he disappeared all together and we didn't see him for several months.

20th August 2006

'everybody's an art critic...'

20th August 2006

20th August 2006

'Camilla Update - 15th October 2006'

It would appear that poor little Camilla is having a hard time of it. He turned up today with a head injury. It looks as though he has been running away from something (probably Raider or Thurston) and ripped skin off off his head on a piece of 'wait-a-while' (nasty prickly Lawyer Cane) or running under a fallen log.
I will keep an eye on him to make sure the wound doesn't become infected. I started adding soaked puppy food again to his fruit, hoping that the extra protein would give him a boost and help with the healing process.
17th October 2006
Camilla is still coming in every morning for breakfast, and the wound doesn't look any worse. I am feeding him in a different spot though, to keep him away form the other two casso's.
He stayed around again for a month or so and then disappeared again, but at least his wound had healed and he was looking better again.

'Camilla Update - 3rd January 2007'

Well, look who just rocked in to say "hello'.
Camilla arrived on the verandah this afternoon. I fed him in the usual spot, away from the big cassowaries. He hung around for a week this time, before disappearing again.
It's great to see that he is a survivor.

3rd January 2007

'Camilla Update - 17th May 2007'

17th May 2007 I am very happy to report that Camilla has just rocked up again. He appears to have grown, although he is still a stunted little runt.
The scarring from his old head injury is still quite visible, I will be interested to see if it has any effect on his casque development.

17th May 2007

He stayed around for nearly 2 weeks this time before wandering off again. It has been so nice to see him on such a regular basis to know that he is safe and doing OK. I reckon as such a little survivor, he deservers a place in the Cassowary world.

20th May 2007

'Camilla Update - October 2007'

This was the last we have seen of our little Camilla. He seems to have disappeared all together. I hope he is OK. I know it is usual for him to go off for a few months, but this is the longest period he has been away, nearly 6 months.
The other day Kim & I were walking through Cutten Brothers walk, we had noticed a cassowary poo on the ground. Then we were chatting to a couple of old blokes who were doing some work on the track, they were telling us a bout a young sub-adult cassowary who had been crossing the road to get to Cutten Brothers. We were convinced that it was our Little Camilla. I was both happy and concerned, as any road crossing can be hazardous, especially on those corners.
It wasn't long after this that a local man reported finding what appeared to be a small cassowary skull on the beach near Cutten Brothers walk. I was devastated as I was certain that it was my baby. We still had not seen any sight of him at all.
What a terrible way for my Little Camilla to end up. I was so sad.

'Camilla Update - December 2007'

I was working at C4, our local environment centre this week, and a very excited young couple came in to report that they had seen a cassowary at Lacey's Creek rainforest walk, they very happily showed me their photo's.
I equally excitedly looked at their photo's as I get a real buzz when someone catches a glimpse of one of our special birds and love sharing our special place with others.
I looked at the photo's and saw an older sub-adult cassowary who was colouring up nicely and it's casque was just starting to develop. I looked at the next photo, and nearly jumped out of my skin, I asked if they could zoom in the cassowary's head. And what did I see, a very definite scar on the side of the birds head, in what I thought was exactly the same spot as Camilla's scar. I was nearly jumping up and down, and I seem to remember telling the lovely, but surprised young couple that I loved them.
I gave them my card and they promised to send me the photo's when they returned home in January. I have been waiting with baited breath to see if they would remember.
AND THEY DID!!

'Excited Camilla Update - 4th February 2008'
Having studied the photo's ... there is no doubt what-so-ever, that it is my Little Camilla.
I will put one of their photo's beside one I have of Camilla's head, then you will see there is no doubt at all.

17th May 2007 and 12th December 2007
The scarring is still totally visible behind his casque.

'Nina & Martins photo's taken at Lacey's Creek on the 12th and 13th December 2007'
I am over the moon, and so grateful to them for remembering me and for sending me their photo's

12th December 2007

13th December 2007

'Thank-you so much Nina and Martin, you have made me very very happy.'
What a fabulous ending to a fabulous story, I will keep you posted to any new developments.
I am still hoping to come face to face with him myself, I will keep on walking the track and keeping my fingers crossed.

And a final word from Camilla himself
"Are you lookin' at me???"

22nd May 2007 - my favourite Camilla photo

For more cassowary stories, please visit my 'Cassowary' page on my photo website
Home

Camilla aged approx. 6 months 4th August 2006
Little Camilla arrived on the final day of 'Big Brother', hence the name - Marni wanted Camilla to win. Camilla had been booted out by her Dad because there was no food in the forest. She was probably a lot older than she looked, but was small and stunted as a result of the cyclone and lack of food. I had seen her a few days earlier, running through the trees, but not close enough to see him properly. Then she appeared at the tap getting a drink from a container that I had used to take fruit to the feeding station for the other cassowaries.

9th August 2006	She was very very cute. And it didn't take long to get her long to get used to being fed away from the others. Because of her size, we treated her differently and relaxed the rules of not being seen when putting food down. We changed that rule later when she was bigger and obviously going to survive. I added puppy food soaked in water to her diet with the fruit to give her extra protein. Very soon she was looking a whole lot healthier than she did when she first came to us. Then there was the startling News just to hand .... My friend Ranger Shayne had just been checking out my Camilla Files and, she reckoned that it was very likely that Camilla is a BOY... apparently boys have little stick legs, little feet & longer skirts whereas the girlies have big chunky legs & feet and shorter skirts (tarts) We decided to continue calling him Camilla as that was the name we were all used to, I am sure he'll get over it.
9th August 2006

Camilla continued to grow and thrive. He was such a little charactor, we were very much his family. After a few months of just hanging around here and hiding from the big cassowaries, he started disappearing for a few days, gradually growing into weeks. He was obviously off exploring the forest, and hopefully finding food and shelter. We knew that he had to do this, and hopefully eventually he would find his own space in the forest, but it was a worrying time for me as his Mummy .. er Daddy Cassowary as I kept thinking the worst, but hoping for the best. Eventually, he disappeared all together and we didn't see him for several months.	20th August 2006
'everybody's an art critic...' 20th August 2006 20th August 2006
'Camilla Update - 15th October 2006'
	It would appear that poor little Camilla is having a hard time of it. He turned up today with a head injury. It looks as though he has been running away from something (probably Raider or Thurston) and ripped skin off off his head on a piece of 'wait-a-while' (nasty prickly Lawyer Cane) or running under a fallen log. I will keep an eye on him to make sure the wound doesn't become infected. I started adding soaked puppy food again to his fruit, hoping that the extra protein would give him a boost and help with the healing process. 17th October 2006 Camilla is still coming in every morning for breakfast, and the wound doesn't look any worse. I am feeding him in a different spot though, to keep him away form the other two casso's. He stayed around again for a month or so and then disappeared again, but at least his wound had healed and he was looking better again.
'Camilla Update - 3rd January 2007'
Well, look who just rocked in to say "hello'. Camilla arrived on the verandah this afternoon. I fed him in the usual spot, away from the big cassowaries. He hung around for a week this time, before disappearing again. It's great to see that he is a survivor.	3rd January 2007
'Camilla Update - 17th May 2007'
17th May 2007	I am very happy to report that Camilla has just rocked up again. He appears to have grown, although he is still a stunted little runt. The scarring from his old head injury is still quite visible, I will be interested to see if it has any effect on his casque development.
17th May 2007
He stayed around for nearly 2 weeks this time before wandering off again. It has been so nice to see him on such a regular basis to know that he is safe and doing OK. I reckon as such a little survivor, he deservers a place in the Cassowary world. 20th May 2007
'Camilla Update - October 2007' This was the last we have seen of our little Camilla. He seems to have disappeared all together. I hope he is OK. I know it is usual for him to go off for a few months, but this is the longest period he has been away, nearly 6 months. The other day Kim & I were walking through Cutten Brothers walk, we had noticed a cassowary poo on the ground. Then we were chatting to a couple of old blokes who were doing some work on the track, they were telling us a bout a young sub-adult cassowary who had been crossing the road to get to Cutten Brothers. We were convinced that it was our Little Camilla. I was both happy and concerned, as any road crossing can be hazardous, especially on those corners. It wasn't long after this that a local man reported finding what appeared to be a small cassowary skull on the beach near Cutten Brothers walk. I was devastated as I was certain that it was my baby. We still had not seen any sight of him at all. What a terrible way for my Little Camilla to end up. I was so sad.
'Camilla Update - December 2007' I was working at C4, our local environment centre this week, and a very excited young couple came in to report that they had seen a cassowary at Lacey's Creek rainforest walk, they very happily showed me their photo's. I equally excitedly looked at their photo's as I get a real buzz when someone catches a glimpse of one of our special birds and love sharing our special place with others. I looked at the photo's and saw an older sub-adult cassowary who was colouring up nicely and it's casque was just starting to develop. I looked at the next photo, and nearly jumped out of my skin, I asked if they could zoom in the cassowary's head. And what did I see, a very definite scar on the side of the birds head, in what I thought was exactly the same spot as Camilla's scar. I was nearly jumping up and down, and I seem to remember telling the lovely, but surprised young couple that I loved them. I gave them my card and they promised to send me the photo's when they returned home in January. I have been waiting with baited breath to see if they would remember. AND THEY DID!!
'Excited Camilla Update - 4th February 2008' Having studied the photo's ... there is no doubt what-so-ever, that it is my Little Camilla. I will put one of their photo's beside one I have of Camilla's head, then you will see there is no doubt at all. 17th May 2007 and 12th December 2007 The scarring is still totally visible behind his casque.
'Nina & Martins photo's taken at Lacey's Creek on the 12th and 13th December 2007' I am over the moon, and so grateful to them for remembering me and for sending me their photo's 12th December 2007 13th December 2007 'Thank-you so much Nina and Martin, you have made me very very happy.' What a fabulous ending to a fabulous story, I will keep you posted to any new developments. I am still hoping to come face to face with him myself, I will keep on walking the track and keeping my fingers crossed.