Cassowary news

Sue and I would like to thank the many people who have written to express their sadness at the news of Missy the female Cassowary being found dead. Ironically just yesterday we had a tracking and feeding station set up here on our property as part of studies to find out more about movements of these iconic birds. I attach a comment from James Biggs from Cairns Tropical Zoo about Ruptured Bowel Syndrome: Very sad news for Kuranda. I have learned a couple of things from my limited experience of dissecting old, long-term captive cassowaries. While outwardly, a cassowary may look completely normal, often i’ve found significant issues internally on post mortem. A perforated bowel can be caused by a number of things such as trauma, or disease such as diverticulitis. The beauty about captive birds is that we can identify (with some degree of certainty) whether a perforated bowel was caused by either external trauma (fight with another bird) internal trauma (stray nail, wire or other sharp object), or other disease – because we see (and analyse) the birds and their poo (yes, we analyse their poo!) every day. I’d only be speculating if I were to comment about the two kuranda birds and I don’t want to add further conjecture, but two birds in the same area with the same diagnosis seems like it could be a little unusual. I’d be interested to see the full reports if possible. Phil Gregory ornithological writer/ bird guide/ tour organizer Field Guides / Sicklebill Safaris / Cassowary House / Cassowary Tours P.O. Box 387 Kuranda QLD, 4881 Australia Phone: +61 (0)7 4093 7318 Fax: +61 (0)7 4093 9855 Email: oreornis@gmail.com Website 1: Http://www.sicklebillsafaris.com Website 2: Http://www.cassowary-house.com.au