CASSOWARY ANATOMY

      Cassowaries are interesting animals.  For example, they live in Australia, which is almost a guarantee that it is going to be an interesting animal.  It has a casque on it's head, blue head skin, triangular bill, glossy black hair-like feathers, powerful legs and three toes.  The middle toe has a long spike on it that is used for defense.  Do not provoke a cassowary.  It would not be pretty.   
       The casque is for crashing through the dense forests the cassowary lives in and is sometimes called a 'horny helmet'.  It's head and neck has blue skin with bright red wattles hanging down from the neck.  It's legs are a non-descript color of gray and very thick.
          

   Cassowaries follow Atkins, Jenny Craig, and Fad Diets...SYKE!  Cassowaries are omnivores, meaning they eat meat and vegetation.  Cassowaries eat fruits and seeds and er... help with distributing seeds around the rainforest.  They also eat dead animals that they can find.

CASSOWARY REPRODUCTION

  Mating season is from May to November.  Females are larger  than males and lay three to six eggs, then takes off and leaves the male with eight weeks to
 figure out exactly what to tell the chicks when they find out they have no mother.  When the chicks hatch , they are a creamish sort of color with brown stripes.  They stay  with dad for nine months. 

Cassowary (2005)
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