Re: WHEN CASSOWARIES ATTACK

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

On Fri, 17 Aug 2001, chris brochu wrote:

> I'd always assumed that cassowaries are more aggressive because of where
> they live.  Other ratites live in open country, and their normal response
> to any kind of threat is to turn and run away.  Cassowaries live in rain
> forests, and the turn-and-run option is not always open to them.

Maybe so.  Or, alternatively, other ratites live in open country but
(at highest densities, anyway) they nest in broad grassy areas.  If they
are discovered by hyenas, lions, or black-backed jackals, the nest is
lost.  No point in being aggressive.  The cassowary, nesting in the
forest is at once more likely to be discovered (although the camouflage is
incredible, a forest supports higher density of vertebrates than the arid
margins of grasslands) and also more likely to be able to defend itself
because the predators are not as potent.  It would be interesting to see
if one could correlate the degree of aggressiveness with the eseverity of
predation.  Probably impossible, though.  The cassowary is more likely
responding to "ghost species".

Also, the forests where the cassowary lives may, I think, allow for
speed--cassowaries are fast.  This would be of no value at nesting time,
of course.