World Cassowary Day
I shared a little peek of this chap yesterday in my stories! For those of you who guessed cassowary you were correct!! It was actually World Cassowary Day on the 26th (I had no idea!) and I think these awesome birds don’t get a lot of recognition.
There’s actually 3 living species of cassowary, this one is southern cassowary. Whilst they’re globally listed as “least concern” by the IUCN they are listed as endangered in Queensland where they are a huge tourist attraction. They’re also a key species for the rainforest as they eat and disperse over 150 different seed varieties. A large amount of plants entirely rely on dispersal by cassowary as they are the only animal that can crack into some of the rainforest fruits with a very tough skin.
Let me know in the comments if you’ve ever heard of or seen a cassowary!! Mr H and I nearly went on a cassowary watching trip once but opted instead for snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef! One day I’d love to see them in the wild though!