Cotman watercolours tubes, Faber Castel Pastel pencils on Saunders Waterford 300gsm 310×230 Cotton Satiné High White paper

📸: Benjamin Balazs via Pixabay

When you see him, you may think he walked away from Jurassic Park, don’t you? A bird with a large bony helmet on the head, a 10-centimeter-long claw on each leg, a powerful beak and brightly colored wattles that can change color depending on the mood. Feathers that you can’t really call feathers. He also seems to have a pair of mean sharp pins on his rudimentary wings. Rudimentary, because he is a flightless bird, but who can run fast and jump high.

He is normally shy and only attacks when he (or his nest or young) is threatened. An attack by a cassowary can be immediately fatal for a human or another animal. He can cause deep wounds with his claws or even pierce the neck.

The cassowary lives in the rainforests of Australia and New Guinea, where it feeds on fruits, seeds and small animals. In some areas it is possible for tourists to feed them. People seems to like that… But if you don’t feed them, they can suddenly approach you aggressively and that can be dangerous. Really feels like a scene from Jurassic Park!

Nevertheless, the cassowary is quite modern: The male incubates the eggs (for about 50 days) and the young stay with the father for another 10 months. After laying eggs, the female goes in search of other males for a new laying!

Tidbits:

• There are 3 species, the smallest of them is about 80 cm, the largest about 1.80 cm. But each species with their own colors.
• The female is larger and brighter colored than the male.
• The bony helmet would be used to make its way through the dense vegetation and will protect its head.

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