Cassowary Conservation at the Wairambar Rainforest

The endangered Southern Cassowary Casuarius casuarius is a frequent visitor and present on-site most of the year. We have not established whether they are breeding on-site. It is possible to identify individual cassowaries as shown below...

We do not feed cassowaries, our efforts focus on planting cassowary food plants. "A fed cassowary is a dead casswary". Cassowaries fed by humans quickly become acclimatised to humans, their natural shy behaviour changes. They reject their natural "escape distance" become agressive and lose their natural fear of  humans, dogs and vehicles. At least two of the cassowaries we have observed have been killed , a consequence human interaction and loss of natural fear. One chick killed by a local dog and one hit by a car. 

Cassowary Observations 2011-present

We do not give cassowaries names as this would attribute human characteristics. We designated each cassowary a letter and attempt to get a photograph if we can do so without disturbing the bird. Ideally we would like all cassowaries to remain at a good escape distance and ignore humans. The more successful we are at keeping cassowaries wild , the more difficult they will be to photograph but the better chance they have of long term survival.

We also observe, photograph and identify seeds and fruit in cassowary scats. Comparison of cassowary scats to feral pig droppings clear show that both pigs and cassowaries are, at times, competing for the same food. Feral pigs actively dig up the leaf pile nests of macropod birds and while we have observed this for bush turkeys and scrub fowl (we have yet to located a cassowary nest ). 

To date we have about 15 pages of observations of undisturbed healthy living cassowaries in the wild - too much to put on this web-page. 

Weather: From 2003-2010 we did experience about two "mast years" these are common events in the rainforest where every few years (not sure of the trigger) plants produce exceptional qualities of fruit and seeds. "Mast years" are periods of plenty and cause visible increases in vertebrate, insect  and amphibian populations. Over the period  2011-present we have not had a "mast year" Over the period 2018-present in November-December we have observed a prolonged 2-3 week period of exceptionally hot dry weather. There is a cascading effect in the rainforest. . To simplify...The native mammal population, with it's inability to regulate temperature has been impacted with for example green ringtail possums gradually moving downward from the canopy to ground level in search of cooler temperatures eventually seeking cool on the ground in a semi-comatose state. Red legged pademelons and musky rat kangaroo observations are fewer. At the same time the feral mammal population, feral cats and feral pigs, appear to be less affected by prolonged heat and observations are increasing. The end of year dry period is causing some plants to fruit earlier, the release of pheromones causing insects that eat those fruit to have to hatch pre-maturely resulting in malformed shell and wings. The early arrival of insects has advanced the mating periods of some of the songbirds whose chicks are then hatching earlier and in less ideal time of year.

What follows are a few select cassowary observations...

April 2015 -  exceptionally dry March in Topaz 354mL overall a dry year so far flowers and fruit delayed, bird nesting about 2 months behind average with fledglings on nest in Feb, saved by lack of rain, several days in a row of +30 degrees C burns new leaves. No adults on property (typed mid-April). Scats suggest a single juvenile cassowary (possibly male F - it is possible that male F is Chick C) this cassowary is very wary of humans and runs deep into the bush as soon as it sees you. No distinguishing marks from imagery so far – several attempts to capture on camera trap. Cassowary activity seems to have moved from mid-property to SW boundary possibly due to replacement of barbed wire fencing with plain fencing and planted cassowary fruit trees starting to produce fruit. We are concerned that we haven't seen any mature adults so far in 2015

April 2016-May 2017

A drier than average period with little fruit. Cassowaries seen much more often in the open as they feed in open fields of invasive cherry guava and tobacco weed fruit. Consequently the spread of cherry guava is expected to reach pest proportions over the next year. Feral pig activity is discouraging cassowary movements in World Heritage to the SE of our property – lots of fruit in the pig droppings, many pandanus damaged, lots of disturbed understorey soil particularly in more open patches where old mature trees have fallen. We have had to install fences material around rare Stockwellia quadrifilla seedlings. Eight individuals identified since we last reported. Our most mature breeding cassowary couple did not return this year. In April we were able to replace a neighbouring 4 strand barbed wire fence with a three strand barbed / one strand plain “cassowary friendly “barbed wire fence. We found a bottom wire height of 430mm facilitated the easy passage of a mature cassowary.

October 21st  2017  5:01pm  - new cassowary adult perfectly smooth casque, large white area behind eye, blue in narrow strip continues down back on right hand side(did not get view of left side), left wobble just slightly longer, both wobbles smooth, small white spot on blue skin under chin on RHS designated cassowary “ L” eating Podocarpus destruens “Double Seeded Brown Pine” and Ficus crassipes “Banana Fig”

August 28 2018 1:00pm cassowary scat eaten by feral pig on main entry road near intersection with Poinkee, large pig turd beside scat seed and fruit content missing suggesting the pig is eating the scat - implication feral pig is negating the keystone function of this endangered and critical species

December 6th 2018 9:55-10am and 11:50am–12:05pm NEW CASSOWARY “M” juvenile male small casque, still brown feather tips near tail, quite small size. Photos and video take, this bird is not afraid of people or cars and we fear it has been fed by someone as when it sees us it hangs around and when we are out of sight it forages elsewhere only to return if we come in sight, eating Cryptocarya pleurosperma ( Lauraceae ) Poison Walnut, Prunus Turneriana (Rosaceae) Almondbark or Wild Almond, Ficus crassipes ( Moraceae) Banana Fig. There was plenty of fruit about on the ground.

January 20, 2019 10:00 am very fresh scat almost entirely the invasive species Camilia senisis drinking Tea plant

January  2019  The problem with “M” -”M” exhibits two bits of unusual behaviour:

1. “M” is unafraid of humans and cars. “M” boldly approaches humans and is attracted by the colours orange and yellow. “M” gets excited and can start to jump in the air if you extend your arms towards him. Calling out does not scare “M” away. The only way to get him to move on is to stand still with your hands in your pockets for 2-5 minutes after which he loses interest. Like Bill Lishman’s study of Canada Geese we feel “M” has been hand fed by humans from a very early age and has imprinted with humans. It thinks it is a human. “M”’s chances of long term survival therefore are limited.

2. The second second strange behaviour is that “M” shares a feeding area with the older male “L”. “L” could be “M”’s father. This is very strange behaviour for two males who would generally lead mostly solitary lives.They do not feed in the same area at the same time but “L” cycles through first on its feeding path and “M” generally follows the same path about twenty minutes later. “L” visits less frequently and is very wary of humans. “L”’s territory is larger and “M” seems to be confined to the property. It may be that due to hand feeding at a very young age that “M” has not been taught feeding skills and relies on “L” ‘s scented trail to find food sources.

We are trying to get “M” to ignore humans by giving no attention, providing lots of planted native foods and can only hope the bird will gradually become disinterested in humans and develop skills of surviving off rainforest food sources. We can only hope that as “M” becomes a mature male that older “L” will drive “M” further into the rainforest, forcing it to seek its own territory we hope away from roads and humans.

The only positive observation is that “M”’s physical condition has improved over time from being poorly feathered where you could see the skin beneath the feathers to being fully feathered with dense glossy feathers. So it appears to have developed some better skills at native food gathering.

If “M” is driven towards humans on maturity it is unlikely to survive. 

April 4, 2020 7:20am Cassowaries “N” and “O” back near banana fig Ficus crassipes ( Moraceae), starting to be less shy, “N” has a neck dominated with a large blue area, some white and red triangles, casque outline is perfectly shaped and smooth but the surface on the right hand side appears to have a diagonal area of roughness, no good photos, both “N” and “O” appear in exceptional good health with feathers well groomed and in excellent condition

June 23, 2020 1:45pm “M” returns – no long a youth “M” has lost almost all of its brown plumage with just a tiny bit of brown around the tail, with even bobbles, striking blue on neck, perfect casque, looked around for a while then quietly moved off, approached from Wairambar Creek direction, note: large number of pigs in area (up to nine) causing considerable future erosion issues damaging micro-habitats consequently our pademelon and muskyrat kangaroo populations are comparatively very low

December 08 , 2020 numerous scats of adult “N”and chick”O” left over the past three weeks while we have been off-site.

The adult scats are large and form a conical pile, chick scats are cylindrical with relatively flat terminated ends. (in comparison feral pig scats are cylindrical to round with rounded ends and the seeds appear to have been digested to a much greater degree – seeds from feral pig scats do not readily germinate – so pigs are a direct threat to cassowary survival). The adult scat contains Prunus tumeriana and some Poison Walnut Cryptocarya pleurosperma (Lauraceae ).The chick’s scats contain slightly different contents from the adult scat Prunus tumeriana and native (blue) ginger Alpinia caerulea, - this had little nutritional value In the chick’s scat some of the fruit are less than ideal (they float and are unlikely to germinate). It would appear that his chick roughly follows what the adult eats but also trys fruits that adult leaves – does this mean that there is little fruit type learning provided by the adult?

July 12, 2021 12:00 noon "P" and "Q" Excellent view of "P" a young male with even bobbles, the red skin on this cassowary is not intensely red and a low small casque. "P" has an area of exposed red coloured skin extending down its right shoulder and ending at the same length as the bobbles. The exposed skin area is medium to pale red , becoming increasingly mottled with black (feathers?) the lower you go on the patch. "P" was eating Alphinia caerulea Blue Ginger, the undigested ginger fruit in its scat were still green. The scat also contained unidentified fig seeds. "P" also tried out Alphinia arctiflora Peated Ginger fruit but none were seen in the scat "P" still has some brown feather tips on its tail.

"Q" is a fully brown feathers chick. It does not look in good health. Skin can be seen beneath the feathers in the shoulder area and particularly on its face. No casque development so far.

Our property is experiencing some damage from at least two skinny, small to medium size feral pigs – one male one female. They are picking up fallen fruit , turning fallen logs and nosing up any loose soil. They are unpredictably acitve day and night which is unusual as local feral pigs are usually nocturnal and habitual in their travels and daytime resting place.

Unusual behaviour "P" suddenly became extremely agitated. There was some crashing in the bush that continued for several seconds. A black shape (either a small pig or a bush turkey) crossed into our line of sight with "P" in chase. The chase continued into the bush and out of hearing range with a lot of crashing sounds. We have never seen a cassowary chase a bush turkey so we assume the aggression was directed towards a small pig.

Cassowary Friendly Fencing at the Wairambar Rainforest and Rainforest Rescue

The Problem

Over the past decade an unanticipated risk has been created for cassowaries that transit the property.

The Wairambar Rainforest  boundary in the process or rainforest recovery and restoration was planted with hundreds of cassowary food plants. These plants were nurtured from seeds in cassowary scats (poo) and after a decade are beginning to produce substantial amounts of food. So now the cassowaries are feeding right up to both sides of a rather dangerous 4 strand barbed wire boundary fence. 

• Cassowaries are critical  in distributing and dispersing rainforest seed and fruit.  seeds / fruit that has passed through a cassowary has a much higher germination rate than randomly collected  seed / fruit. 

• Cassowaries travel some distance before dropping seeds/ fruit plus fertiliser.  

• Like giant white railed rats  the are the main  mechanisms for transporting large round rainforest fruit uphill. 

• Widely distributing  seed / fruit protects rainforest trees from being severely affected by insect or disease attack - the trees are simply too far apart to all be impacted. 

We collect and propagate viable, non-invasive seeds and fruit from cassowary scats that have dropped in locations where there is little or no chance of germination. Scats that drop in areas where germination could be successful are left intact.

Fortunately Rainforest Rescue has come to our aid by providing materials to enable us to replace our 4 strand barbed wire fence with a cassowary friendly 4 strand plain wire fence. Now the cassowaries can transit from World Heritage Wet Tropics, through the Wairambar Rainforest  and on to surrounding rainforest fragments and corridors without having to cross any barbed wire.

In 2002 the boundary was obscured with a dense thicket feral lantana bushes 3.5m in height, 500m in length and 15m in width. Stray cattle(a very common occurrence) trampled gaps through the lantana and ravaged the first 15m of the rainforest under story. The stray cattle disturbed the soil stimulating the feral seed bank beneath. They carried in a continuous supply of feral plant and declared weed seeds. They ate or trampled delicate natives, knocked over young saplings and buried / crushed wildlife burrows. The strays brought here from large isolated properties out west were quite wild not used to humans or fences and very easily spooked. Initially a simple electric fence was erected but it had little effect and as there was no electricity near the property and no-one lived on site, it did not work. New plantings were destroyed within days of planting. 

After losing 100 large trees namely beautiful 2m tall black palms acquired as a gift, See image left … it was time to build a seriously cattle proof fence!

2005 Once the barbed wire fence was built it was possible to begin rainforest repair along the vertical grass / forest boundary. 

Note the damaging affect of drying winds on the understorey along the boundary and the reduce leaf growth in the canopy.

You can see the jagged nature of the boundary caused by cattle incursions. The "browned" plants are feral weeds from cattle droppings treated and killed  with a glycosate / vinegar / detergent spray.

Left : observation of cassowary getting under fence 340mm to bottom barbed wire

Right: height of 500mm  chosen for lower most  wire which will be replaced with smooth wire

Left: nasty barbed wire fence using star pickets and tree trunks

Middle: transporting materials to site

Right: Completed Cassowary Friendly Plain Wire Fence with periodic gateway

easy for a cassowary to  get through , not so easy for cattle, horses, motorcycles or humans

We would prefer not to have any fencing at all but over the years have lost many many planted trees to cattle incursions. Thanks to Rainforest Rescue we were able to replace our barbed wire boundary fencing with smooth wire cassowary fencing and create a cassowary corridor as part of an ambitious plant to connect coastal and mountain rainforest over the next few decades.

The smooth wire is fine for keeping out the odd cattle incursion but a herd would quickly realise ingress or egress is possible.In this project we build a cassowary friendly barbed wire fence on an adjacent property. It is not an ideal solution but we hope it proves to be an improvement and make life easier for the local cassowaries.

From previous observations we found that an adult cassowary can pass under a fence wire just 430mm off the ground. 

Above: Cassowary permeable gateway

When there is evidence of cassowary feeding along the fencing we will open the gates  in order that cassowaries have free passage to surrounding properties.

Even when closed the large gate has a permanent "cassowary passage" on each side

- wide enough for a cassowary or a human but too narrow for cattle or motorcycles

Above: Completed cassowary friendly, cassowary permeable  barbed / plain wire fencing

2016 For our design the bottom wire is tightly strung thick plain wire strung between 430 and 500mm off the ground. This is a bit higher than normal and the tightness of the wire is to discourage cattle from trying to go head under the fence. The next three wires are barbed wire at a conventional fencing height. Because the lowermost wire is a bit higher than normal the spacing of the bottom two wires is a bit closer and a bit more intimidating to cattle. 

It should be sufficient to discourage full size cattle – so far it has worked well for some pretty feisty cattle arriving from out west! The fence would not be low enough to contain young calves. They would have to kept elsewhere until they gain a bit of size.

This fence abuts rainforest so in this situation large flying fruit bats are not at risk. Large fruit bats do not echolocate – they use vision and barbed wire against a night sky is very hard to see. On ridge lines large fruit eating bats often use “ground effect” to glide along valleys and over heights. In such cases entrapment in the barbed wire may be minimised by painting the top wire white or next time you replace a fence put it a bit further down the slope.

4 Strand Plain Wire Fencing -  the optimal choice for wildlife  

2018 The optimal fencing to facilitate passage of wildlife is 4 strand plain wire fencing. This type of fence will keep out dairy cattle and beef cattle used to humans  but not calves or "wild" beef cattle brought in from remote areas for finishing. The wire needs to be heavy duty and tight to be effective. While the wire is more expensive than barbed wire there is a cost/benefit as it will have a much longer service life and is much easier to repair

see also: 

Great ideas on on how to make your fencing  friendly to bats, birds, kangaroos:      https://wildlifefriendlyfencing.org/

Report any entangled wildlife to your local wildlife rescue organisation found at:  https://fauna.org.au/

Below : 4 strand plain wire wildlife friendly fencing