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| Common Name: | Double-Wattled Cassowary | Family: | Casuariidae |
| Latin Name: | Casuarius casuarius | Diet: | Omnivore |
| Type: | Bird | Habitat: | Tropical Rainforests |
| Native To: | Australasia | Social Unit: | Individual |
| IUCN Red List Status: | Vulnerable |
Double-wattled cassowaries at Edinburgh Zoo
Edinburgh Zoo has two double-wattled cassowaries. Billy (a male born in 2002) and Sydney (a female born in 2003) came to us from other zoos as part of a European Studbook (ESB). Held by Avifauna in the Netherlands, there are around 100 cassowaries at 45 collections in this programme. Like other ratites (flightless birds such as ostrich and rhea) it is the male that incubates the eggs and there is a special area in the enclosure designed for this behaviour.
Keepers don’t normally work in the cassowaries’ enclosure with the birds present, as they are potentially dangerous: cassowaries have a 12cm (4.7 inch) dagger-like inner toe and can deliver powerful two-footed kicks at anyone they think might be a “threat” to them or their chicks!
Where it can be found at Edinburgh Zoo.
The cassowary enclosure is in the middle section of the Zoo, just next to the pygmy hippo enclosure
Double-wattled cassowaries in the wild
Inhabiting the tropical and sub-tropical forests of New Guinea and northern Australia, the double-wattled cassowary, also known as the Southern cassowary, is one of 3 cassowary species.
Cassowaries mainly feed on fruit that has fallen to the forest floor but will also eat rodents and small birds. They are a “keystone” species: one that many other animals and plants depend upon in a habitat. This is because cassowaries eat a wide variety of forest fruits and disperse the intact seeds in their droppings. As they are the only animal capable of eating some forest fruits due to their large size, these trees depend entirely upon cassowaries to reproduce and spread.
The double-wattled cassowary population in the wild is thought to be between 10-20,000 adult birds. However, there is evidence that they are in decline, primarily due to habitat loss, hunting, road traffic accidents and predation by dogs. The International Union
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) classifies the double-wattled cassowary as Vulnerable, meaning that this species is facing a high risk of extinction in the wild.
Breeding programme category: ESB
IUCN Red List category: Vulnerable
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