As you watch these videos, you can almost imagine what a dromaeosaur might do something similar in self defense or against each other in battles for mates or territory. You sometimes hear about cassowaries disemboweling other animals, such as dogs.
But because dromaeosaurs had a much sharper claw than cassowaries, it is easy to imagine dromaeosaurs disembowelling smaller prey more easily than a cassowary might. By comparison, the cassowary claw is surprisingly dull and straight, almost hoof-like in nature.
Another video depicting cassowary attacks ...
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Yet again, I am totally snowed (the day job, editorial work, technical consultancy, in-progress manuscripts, etc.) and haven't been able to complete any of the frighteningly long list of articles I am planning to blog: you know, the ones on more sheep, more anguids, Australia: land of placentals,…
I have a great liking for cassowaries, and I've had good reason to write about them several times. I've also had fun playing with preserved specimens and skeletons - something I must elaborate on at some time. Back in 2006 - the days of Tet Zoo ver 1 - I blogged some of my cassowary-related musings…
tags: Paleontology, birds, Genyornis newtoni, rock art, aboriginal peoples, Archaeology, Australia, Niwarla Gabarnmung, Arnhem Land, Flinders University
Australia's oldest painting?
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Image:…
Welcome to Territoriality Week! Every day this week, I'll have a post about some aspect of animal or human territoriality. How do animals mark and control their territories? What determines the size or shape of an animal's territory? What can an animal's territory tell us about neuroanatomy? Today…
Anyone ever considered attaching a scale size scytheclaw to a cassowary, just to see what it could do?
There are so many beautiful and deadly creatures like the cassowary, dart frogs, centipedes, etc. I always assumed they survived despite the anti-camoflage because they were so deadly. Did the coloration therefore become part of sexual selection, and that is what made it so prominent? Or is it the case that being able to survive with such an impediment was an indicator of superior health?
There are a lot of ways for a field biologist to be done in, some more compelling than others.
But to lose it to a Cassowary? That'd be so....embarrassing.
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I think the actions of the man in the second video would qualify him for a "Darwin Award", if he had slipped a little earlier.
But to lose it to a Cassowary? That'd be so....embarrassing...
Indeed. Kicked to death by a bird. What a demeaning epitaph.
And the dope certainly deserved it...
I personally cannot stand human beings who do this kind of crap for their own ego gratification. The bird is gorgeous and this ugly human goes in and pisses it off.
I observe wildlife from a distance and leave them be. It never ceases to anger me that we humans can't just WATCH. Why do we always have to interject our own idiocy in other creature's lives?
Who's to say that dope in the second video hasn't set up some innocent caretaker for an attack?