Re: WHEN CASSOWARIES ATTACK

[John Bois <jbois@umd5.umd.edu>]

On Fri, 17 Aug 2001 darren.naish@port.ac.uk wrote:

> Cassowaries 
> dislike dogs and will attack them without provocation, presumably 
> because feral dogs and dingos often prey on cassowaries. 

Do we think this is a learned response, then?  It could be a fixed action
pattern: "see four-legged beast and attack it."  If so, the
selective force for this behavior would be what: extinct mega-fauna, or
dingoes (is 5,000 years? long enough to evolve such a
behavior?--probably).
Aggressiveness, _per se_ must be innate.
I wonder if aggressiveness is variable among continental vs. NG
species?  Did NG have the amount of megafauna that Australia did? Dingoes?