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 Habitat loss, road deaths and
attacks by dogs.
Feral pigs
More than 80% of its prime
habitat, coastal lowland rainforest,
has been cleared over the last
100 years.
Nearly
a quarter of the remaining cassowary
habitat has poor conservation protection. |
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Feral pigs - just one of the threats the cassowary
faces |
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Cassowary
droppings: a vital part of rainforest tree species
dispersal |
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Cassowaries are large, solitary, long-lived, slow-reproducing animals. They occupy large home ranges or territories with an estimated 75 hectares (183 acres) of quality home range forest required by each bird. This allows them enough room to find food and water in the dry season and to get away from predators and busy roads. Most importantly, they need a large enough territory to enable them to find a mate and maintain a healthy, genetically diverse population.
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| Cassowary chick |
Cassowaries also play an important role in
rainforest dynamics by dispersing large numbers
of rainforest seeds. Fruits from over 230 native
Wet Tropics plant species have been recorded
in their diet.
The cassowary invests substantial time in
paternal care of its young, up to nine months,
yet despite this extended period of care, they
have a low juvenile /sub-adult survival rate.
Essential cassowary
habitat in Australia’s
Wet Tropical rainforests incorporates 91 regional
ecosystems of which 15 are listed as endangered
and 23 are ‘of concern’ under Queensland’s Vegetation
Management Act 1999. Cassowary habitat
is also habitat for upwards of 106 species
of plants and 37 species of animals identified
as threatened under both State and Australian
Government legislation.
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Gardeners
of the rainforest
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Cassowary food |
Cassowaries are one of only a very
few Wet Tropics frugivores that can disperse large
rainforest seeds over long distances which is a role,
that in tropical rainforests in other parts of the
world, is performed by whole guilds of species.
Research has shown that typically,
cassowaries transport 4% of the seeds they consume
an average maximum distance of almost 1.5km (1 mile)
but have the potential for significantly longer distance
dispersal on occasion, to as much as 5.4km (3.5 miles).
The combination of long distance
seed dispersal ability and landscape-scale movement
patterns means that cassowaries play a significant
role in moving seeds, particularly of large seeded
rainforest species, between populations and across
the rainforested landscapes of the Wet Tropics – this
role assumes even greater importance as rainforests
become more fragmented and isolated as a result of
human land use. |
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Fact sheet PDF:
Threats to the Cassowary and the rainforest |
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