Operation Big Bird supports CSIRO research project

Collecting cassowary droppings may not be everyone’s idea of a dream job but the Australian Rainforest Foundation is helping fund a project which is doing just that to help save the Cassowary from extinction.

No one knows exactly how many birds there are left in the World Heritage Tropical Rainforest of northern Australia, with numbers varying from as few as 900 to 1500 from various sources.

The cassowary is extremely important for the regeneration of Australia’s remaining rainforests. The bird is a key stone species that disperses by its droppings, large seeds from the tropical plants over a wide area. It is from these droppings, along with blood and feather samples, that CSIRO scientist Dr. David Westcott hopes to determine how many birds there are and how far they move over a season, as well as to learn their breeding patterns.

“When food passes through the guts of a vertebrate it always scrapes off some of the stomach lining. Through these old stomach cells in the faeces the scientist tries to extract DNA. The faeces are then studied to determine the genetic make-up of the cassowary. From this scientists can then tell if the droppings in one area are from a single bird or from a lot of different birds, and this helps researchers to more accurately count the bird population,” Dr Westcott said.

"There are a lot of reasons for thinking that Cassowaries may be in a lot of trouble, they are big birds, there are never many of them in one place, they need rainforest and there is not a lot of rainforest left in Australia. By collecting cassowary droppings and studying its DNA, scientists may prevent its extinction, which in turn will help the regeneration of our tropical rainforests."

Dr Westcott is undertaking the research “Development of genetic survey methodologies for cassowaries into determining the size of the cassowary population around Mission Beach’ with CSRIO colleague Leo Joseph and Peter Latch from Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service.