RE: CLIMBING CLAWS

["Stewart, Dwight" <Dwight.Stewart@VLSI.com>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: John Bois [SMTP:jbois@umd5.umd.edu]
> Sent: Saturday, December 12, 1998 12:26 AM
> To:   Ronald Orenstein
> Cc:   dinosaur@usc.edu
> Subject:      Re: CLIMBING CLAWS
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I don't know if anyone saw the Discovery (I think) episode where the
> an Australian ranger makes the mistake of climbing into a
> cassowary's pen.  The bird made a murderous lunge at him causing him to
> cry, as he dove over the fence: "You're a very naughty bird!"
> 
> And how strange that so few birds--only the cassowary?--have
> both the means (vicious claw) and the nature (vicious temperament) to pose
> a serious threat to Man.  Any hypotheses for that?  I have one, of course.
> It is the biggest bird to nest in a forest.  As such it depends upon
> cryptic coloring.  However, because forests support high predator density
> such nests are prone to discovery.  In Australia this is not so
> bad because a significant proportion of would-be nest predators can be
> easily bested.  But "naughty birds" don't seem to do well elsewhere.
        ###################

           Oh!  That was the Animal Channel (I think) & I believe the
erstwhile ranger
        was "The Crocodile Hunter"!  I saw that episode, he leapt over that
fence as
        though pursued by a demon! :-)  And, he pretty much was!  It made me
think
        of Dromaeosaurs when I saw it, even though I realize the analogy is
pretty
        speculative.
           But, I thought that ostriches could be potentially deadly too,
though more
        from kicking with those long, powerful legs.  But, then again, their
environment
        is totally different from the cassowary.  

        Dwight