How fitting it is to have a dinosaur bird in the Daintree with its lineage going back millions of years to the ancient Gondwanan Rainforest. However, the Cassowary also helps us tell a more modern and precarious tale.

The combined impacts of climate change and development are impacting on rainforests around the world. We know that half the trees on the planet have been lost and 15 billion trees are chopped or burned down every year. Yet these facts are so nebulous they’re difficult to comprehend, or know how to take action.

When we bring focus to the local level it’s easier to see what can be done. The Cassowary helps us tell this tale.

Cassowary photo © Paul Ijsendoorn

In the Daintree, the lowland rainforest is under the greatest threat from break-up and change. Research shows the disproportionate impacts on biodiversity when rainforest is fragmented. The Cassowary relies on certain species of fruit to get it through lean times; the availability and distribution of these fruit will impact on future Cassowary numbers. In addition, the Cassowary is needed by certain trees for seed dispersal; its ability to move through the local environment will impact on tree distribution. When we start to destroy natural habitat, build roads, introduce invasive weeds and generally disrupt the Cassowary’s mobility we upset this balance.

Add in the extra pressures brought by greater variability in weather patterns, from droughts and floods, the resilience of the rainforest starts to be compromised. If a Cassowary is unable to travel to an area and disperse a seed, we lose the potential of a tree and all the other species that rely on that tree for life. A small impact, but one that is cumulative.

Luckily we can do something about this. You and fellow rainforest rescuers are buying back strategic rainforest properties to create wildlife corridors to stop fragmentation of the unique and ancient lowland Daintree forest.

Of the 27 properties saved by Rainforest Rescue in the Daintree, 21 are now covered with Nature Refuge Covenants, protecting them forever. In addition, two further properties have been gifted to the adjacent Daintree National Park. The remaining four properties will be protected with covenants once restoration work and other legal processes are complete.

These actions are having a real and significant impact and wouldn’t be possible without your support.

This article has been copied from a Rainforest Rescue blog piece

The post Letting the Cassowary Tell a Cautionary Tale appeared first on Save The Cassowary.

When: Saturday 24 September 10am to 2pm

Where: Daintree Rainforest Observatory – JCU site, 3701 Cape Tribulation Road, Cape Tribulation

What: Stalls (including food & coffee stalls). Entertainment area with live music throughout the day. Children’s entertainment tent with Cassowary Treasure hunts, craft, stories. Midday presentation by Dr Claire Baker about insects in the Wet Tropics.

Speakers:

10.15am  Welcome to Country – Clive Sykes/David Solomon, Traditional Owners, Kuku Yalanji

10.20am  Josh Harris – Welcome

10.30am Paul Webster – A history of Cassowary Conversation / WCD

10.45am Paul & Chris O’Dowd – Meet the World’s 3 Cassowary Species

11.15am Bill Wilkie – Daintree Blockade History

11.45am Tom Lawton – Tracking Cassowaries through their poo

12.15pm Dr David Westcott – Cassowary Seed Dispersal

12.45pm Screening of Cassowary Movie – “No rainforest, no food, no cassowary”

1.15pm   Julian Gray – Rainforest Rescue – Conserving and enhancing cassowary habitat for the future

1.30pm   Keynote Speaker – Threatened Species Commissioner – Gregory Andrews

1.50pm   Paul Webster – handover to next year’s organiser

2.00pm   Julia Leu – Final thank you (artwork raffle drawn)

This is a FREE event however any purchases on the day ie food, drinks and anything from stall holders must be made in CASH as there will be no eftpos facilities available.

How to get there: If you’re coming from South of the Daintree River you will need to use the car ferry to cross the River.  It is $26 return (eftpos available) or if you live in the Douglas Shire you can go to the Council offices and pay $15 for an annual local’s ferry pass.

For more information visit the World Cassowary Day Web Site or Facebook Page

The post World Cassowary Day appeared first on Save The Cassowary.

Camera trap image of a cassowary attracted to red lures.

Cassowaries and Camera Traps

by Wren. R. McLean,
January 2016

A cassowary research project was conducted in the Daintree throughout 2014-15 by ex Rainforest Rescue employee and on-going giver Wren McLean.

Wren has a long history with the Daintree and spent her 21^st birthday (some 20 years previous) exploring the region on a gearless second hand bike riding up and down steep washed out 4wd tracks and through flooded rivers during the wet season of 1995, sleeping under only a tarp. Surprisingly she did not spot any cassowaries during this adventure but she is sure, after more recent experiences that they would have spotted her.

Camera trap images of three cassowaries photographed on Baralba Corridor Nature Reserve.

Now a post-grad wildlife researcher with Southern Cross University she has had enough one-on-one encounters with these formidable birds understand that they have a sharp awareness of what’s what and who’s where in their dense rainforest territories which are estimated to be approximately 80ha in size. Wren established 31 study sites from the Daintree river in the south to Melissa Creek in the north of the Daintree which included four Rainforest Rescue Nature Refuges purchased and protected forever as part of the Daintree Buyback program.

Each site was surveyed 4 times for any sign of cassowaries (sighting, vocalisation, scat or footprint) with their fruity dung (or scats) being collected for dietary analysis.  An an experimental survey technique was also trialled whereby fake fruits were placed in front of camera traps at half of the sites and not at the other half. Rainforest Rescue loaned camera traps for this research, which were an invaluable tool which contributed to the first strategic use of remote camera traps to survey cassowaries and the first use of visual lures (representing large red and blue fruits) used in conjunction with camera traps for any wildlife species.

The ‘camera trap visual lure technique’ was shown to significantly was reduce the amount of time required to get the first photographs of cassowaries at a site from an average 11.4 days without the use of lures to 6.5 days when using lures. This allows for considerable savings in time and costs of surveying this species that is known as notoriously difficult to study due to them being cryptic  (solitary, shy and silent) and inhabiting remote dense terrain. Cameras with lures were also found to detect more than twice as many cassowaries as those without.  As the cameras were randomly allocated across all sites this may suggest that cameras without lures failed to detect around half the cassowaries potentially present at those sites. Cassowaries were also twice as likely to stop in front of cameras with lures and spent a significantly longer time in front of them which provided a significantly more images of all three angles of the birds both of these factors increased the ability see unique features that allow for individual identification.  All camera traps combined provided a pool of 466 visual records from which we were able to identify 45 individual cassowaries of which 64% were adults, 18% sub-adults and 18% chicks.  Cameras provided other useful information on cassowary predators (domestic, pig-hunting and wild dogs), feral pigs and photos of three Bennetts tree kangaroos at two different locations.

The Rainforest Recuse reserves surveyed were;

• Rainforest Rescue Nature Reserve at Forest Creek where an adult and two stripy chicks were videoed on one occasion and several scats were found.
• Milky Pine Wildlife Refuge where two courting adults were videoed on numerous occasions along with one independent sub-adult. Scats, footprints and one sighting of this sub-adult were recorded here also.
• Baralba Corridor Nature Refuge is prime cassowary habitat with a 2 single adults and one male with accompanying brown chick photographed. Numerous sightings and vocalisations were recorded along with many scats.
• Kulki anga Nature Reserve, only one scat was found here on the edge of the reserve but the property protects important cassowary habitat that is undoubtedly used throughout the year but a number of resident birds in the area.

Valuable information about the diversity and pattern of habitat use can be derived from dietary analysis; however, no such studies have been undertaken on the Daintree coast. To date, the Daintree cassowaries are mentioned in one published work (Webber and Woodrow, 2004) for their role in dispersing the seed of a rare rainforest tree Ryparosa sp.

The lean season diet was of particular interest to Wren as this often corresponds with the juvenile dispersal period and adds the additional risk of starvation to dispersing chicks. Wren considered the lean season to be from April- July but did not get as much lean season fieldwork opportunity as hoped due the arrival of tropical cyclone Ita which produced 764mm of rain over her first 17 days fieldwork. Many attempts to to establish forest transects during this time were fraught by impenetrable thickets of calamus spp, cyclone damaged vegetation or impassable flooded waterways. A follow up study lean season diet is recommended to add to our knowledge of lean season cassowary food species for habitat restoration and enrichment projects.

The dietary analysis and fruiting study compared fleshy rainforest fruits found on transects both in the scat and on the ground. 71 scats were analysed and contained 28 identified and 11 unidentified species and two exotic palms. On the forest floor, 201 occurrences of 39 species were encountered that represented 23 plant families.

The estimated biomass of 18 identified fruits found common to the scat and the ground were compared between sites, seasons and species as well as by family, colour, weight range and fruiting pattern. The results suggest a preference for some species and an avoidance of other species. Five species; Syzygium Kuranda, Syzygium graveolens, Cerbera floribunda, Elaeocarpus augustifolius, Beilschmiedia castrisinensis made up 87.2% of the total estimated biomass of fruits eaten.

Syzygium kuranda was the most readily utilized species over both seasons. Whilst none was found on the forest floor during the abundant season a 3.4 fold increase of this species is seen in the scat between the lean and abundant season suggesting abundant season selective foraging. The only species suggesting preferential foraging during the lean season is Cerbera floribunda, whereby 56.5% of the total biomass of this species was consumed during this time

These 5 species, along with Syzygium hemilampra, are all substantial contributors to the lean season diet and should be given special attention by seed collectors, native nurseries and rainforest regenerators.

The post Latest Cassowary Research from the Daintree appeared first on Save The Cassowary.

A recent study examined the internal anatomy of a cassowary casque in an attempt to better understand its evolution and ecological function.

The Southern Cassowary (Casuarius casuarius) is one of Australia’s most distinctive birds yet surprisingly, there is still much to learn about this majestic creature. This is of particular concern given the important role that cassowaries play in maintaining tropical rainforest diversity and structure. Some of the many things we don’t know about cassowaries are: how they communicate with each other, how they move within the landscape, what their mating rituals are, and details of their dietary habits.

Cassowary and palm seeds. Photographer Liz Gallie

Cassowary casques
Cassowaries are one of only a handful of animals to have a casque, the ‘helmet-like’ structure that sits atop their heads. Made of keratin, the key structural material found in hair and nails, it is a defining feature of the species. However, despite its prominence, we don’t really know why the casque exists.

A research team headed by Dr Darren Naish from the University of Southampton has provided new anatomical information about the cassowary’s casque that is helping to address this important knowledge gap. Dr Naish’s team has, for the first time, described in detail the anatomy of the casque, offering ideas as to its evolution and function.

Six hypotheses, some anecdotal, have previously been proposed to explain the casque’s presence. Dr Naish’s team evaluated each hypothesis using the anatomical information they obtained dissecting a cassowary skull (see Table 1). Based on their observations, the researchers concluded that the most likely functions of the casque are its use as both a visual and acoustic socio-sexual aid. Aurally, it is likely that the casque acts as a resonance box, with male cassowaries making low frequency, guttural noises to attract a mate. The researchers suggest that the casque helps amplify and direct vocalisation as the male lowers its head towards its potential partner.

Dr Naish’s team confirms that there is very little known about cassowaries generally and that much more work needs to done on their anatomy, genetics, physiology, ecology and behaviour. Stating that their paper is ‘unashamedly speculative in places’, they hope their work will promote discussion and further investigation, suggesting areas for future research foci.

Cassowary photographer Campbell Clarke

Table 1: Discussion on casque function based on anatomical description by Dr Naish’s team

http://www.wettropics.gov.au/a-casque-of-thousands.html

The post A casque of thousands appeared first on Save The Cassowary.

We need to raise $48,000 by 30 June to ensure we can keep the doors open for another year.

Please donate now.

The Cassowary Rehabilitation Centre was about to shut down in 2014. The forced closure would mean injured and sick cassowaries would not have a guaranteed intensive care rehabilitation shelter.

Rainforest Rescue was not about to let that happen without fighting hard to save this critical facility and we took over funding it.

All costs associated with rearing, rehabilitating and re-releasing all cassowaries taken into care at the Centre are funded by Rainforest Rescue – this includes food, vet bills, carer costs and the Centre’s maintenance.

Since taking on the Centre we have been caring for three chicks (two orphaned and one struck by a car). They will be in care until early next year when they’ll be released into the wild.

And we have also cared for injured adult birds for shorter periods until they were healthy enough to be released into the wild again.

We cannot continue to fund the care of injured or sick cassowary’s without your help.

Three cassowary chicks currently in care at the Centre. They will be cared for until their release into the wild early next year.

Your donation is critical to ensure we can continue to feed and care for the sick and injured animals that come into care.

We know you care about the future of the endangered cassowary. Please show how much you care and make an urgent tax deductible donation.

We need to raise $48,000 by 30 June to ensure we can keep the doors open for another year.

Save the Cassowary Rehabilitation Centre

Your donation will ensure we can keep the doors open and care for the endangered cassowary.

Cassowary enclosure fences are covered in shade cloth to prevent the cassowary seeing humans as they walk around the facility – this ensures the cassowary does not become comfortable with human interactions.

Inside a cassowary enclosure. The pond is to enable the birds to bathe and groom regularly and stay cool in the hot weather.

The post Without your help, injured, orphaned and sick cassowaries will be homeless appeared first on Save The Cassowary.

When Rainforest Rescue launched the Save the Cassowary campaign in March 2014 our goal was two-fold:

1. Increase awareness amongst the general community of the plight of the endangered southern cassowary and the daily risks they face from:
   1. habitat clearing
   2. dog attacks, and
   3. car hits
2. fundraise to minimise these risks by:
   1. buying and protecting critical cassowary and rainforest habitats
   2. planting cassowary food trees, and
   3. running the Cassowary Rehabilitation Centre at Mission Beach in partnership with the Qld Dept of Environment and Heritage Protection

With the support of international zoos (that have cassowaries in their facilities), we will be able to spread our message even further.

l-r Grant Binns, Managing Director Rainforest Rescue, Carrie Brooks, Education Program Coordinator, Birmingham Zoo, Alabama USA, and Madeleine Faught, Chair Rainforest Rescue

Carrie takes the story up from here…

Bringing the Save the Cassowary Campaign to the United States: Part 1

I am visiting Australia to learn more about Rainforest Rescue and the Save the Cassowary campaign. Through a grant at the Birmingham Zoo, I am able to visit several campaign partners and have plans to bring this campaign to the United States beginning this spring and summer. In my first week of Australia I have met with Nikki Bodel and Monique Van Sluys and visited a pair of cassowaries at Taronga Zoo before continuing to Sydney Wildlife Zoo where I met Will Meikle and Benjamin Buchanan. During my visit I also met Princess the cassowary who happily plucked grapes from my palm during the zoo’s Cassowary Encounter led by the keeper, Justine who coincidentally had helped at a tree planting in the Daintree last year. At Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary I was able to meet Clancy Hall and learn more about the two cassowaries as well as some of the other great work at the Sanctuary.

After my visits to the campaign partners, I traveled to the Rainforest Rescue headquarters to plan the Birmingham Zoo’s actions in the campaign. I was able to meet with managing director, Grant Binns and board chair, Madeline Faught. After speaking with them and learning more about Rainforest Rescue’s history, mission and vision, I am even more eager to successfully bring this campaign to the United States. In the upcoming days I will be visiting campaign partners Australia Zoo and Cairns Tropical Zoo, as well as the Cassowary Rehabilitation Centre in Mission Beach and seeing firsthand the work of Rainforest Rescue in the Daintree Rainforest.

The post Extending the reach of Save the Cassowary internationally appeared first on Save The Cassowary.

In early Dec 2014, I was lucky enough to achieve two goals on my bucket list:

1. Visit and explore the Daintree; and
2. Spot a wild cassowary!

After two weeks of searching I was starting to believe that I would not see one of these endangered, ancient birds. I saw all the signs indicating their presence, I saw Casso poop, I saw the fruits they ate, I even tried one of the fruits they eat but not even a fleeting glimpse…On our last day we decided on a last-ditch attempt (and sacrificing snorkelling the GBR-another bucket list wish) to spot one of the approx 1000 birds left.

We rose early and headed for Jindalba National Park where there had been recent sightings. We ditched the boardwalk and took the 3km walking track. Literally tip-toing and sneaking through the forest desperately hoping that every noise we heard would be a cassowary…then ¾ into the walk (stalk) when I was starting to feel despair, there it was…a magnificent sub-adult…my world could end and I would be happy!!

We would have been satisfied with just that glimpse but we were treated to approx 40mins of watching/spying on this bird preen, forage, eat, bathe and just do it’s thing … magic. When we finally returned to our accommodation, we were looking at the footage we had captured only to have a cassowary appear from the forest! We then saw that cassowary another two times!!

As we had travelled from near Newcastle NSW and as a long-time supporter and advocator of Rainforest Rescue, it was just brilliant to see all the Rainforest Rescue signs and to see where my donations were going.

Driving down and around Buchanen Road (Cow Bay) was both awesome and heart-wrenching. A magical area of high conservation value but with the amount of ‘for sale’ and ‘sold’ signs around, it was easy to imagine the area being obliterated by property development, hence realising just how important RR’s ‘buy-back’ scheme really is.

It was re-assuring to see RR signs for the Baralba Corridor and also other local properties that were purchased by RR where plant regeneration was clearly in action. Without RR, so many properties and the endangered and endemic fauna and flora within them would already be gone … for good.

Congratulations Rainforest Rescue/Save the Cassowary and to anyone and everyone that contributes to RR- keep up the great work; donate, advocate, sponsor, volunteer and campaign! Lets make 2015 a great year for the worlds’ oldest rainforest and all of its inhabitants.

The post Fulfilling a life-long dream (or two) appeared first on Save The Cassowary.

Three orphan cassowary chicks are in care at Garners Beach Cassowary Rehabilitation Recovery Centre at Mission Beach.

Two of the chicks have been in care since 11 October when they were found wandering down a road in south Mission Beach without their father. It is believed he was killed in a dog attack.

The third chick came into care on 16 November when it was approx. one month old after being struck by a vehicle in Etty Bay. The chick was initially unable to walk, and was found to have a fractured tailbone. Under the care of EHP rangers and the Tully Vets its condition improved steadily and it is now able to walk, and has been transferred to the Centre for ongoing care.

All three chicks are steadily improving and their appetite is growing daily! It is expected they will be in care at the Centre for approximately 12 months before they can be returned to the wild.

Please donate and help us rehabilitate these chicks

These chicks are the future of the endangered southern cassowary population

All costs associated with raring and rehabilitating these chicks (and all birds taken into care at the Centre) is funded by Rainforest Rescue – this includes food, vet bills, carer costs and the Centre’s maintenance.

It costs $36 to feed and care for one bird for one day. Please support the rehabilitation of these chicks so they can return to the wild.

Please donate and help us rehabilitate these chicks

The post Caring for cassowary orphans appeared first on Save The Cassowary.

The male Southern Cassowary is a role model for all dads, humans or otherwise. As a hard-working single parent they hatch their chicks and raise them, teaching them all they need to know until they are independent enough to make their own way in the world.

Remind you of anyone?

So this Father’s Day what better way to say “I love you Dad” than with a LivingGift that will protect and restore rainforest for the endangered southern cassowary.

Order now to ensure your Dad gets his gift in time for Father’s Day

With a Rainforest Rescue LivingGift card you’ll not only be showing your Dad that you care, but that you care enough about the future to help make a difference.

It is the sole responsibility of the male Cassowary to incubate the eggs, a process that takes approximately 50 days.

The male Cassowary looks after his chicks, all on his own, until they are around 9 months of age.

The post The Southern Cassowary….a model father appeared first on Save The Cassowary.

(C) Daintree Discovery Centre

from Adam Smith, Marketing Manager, Dainree Discovery Centre

It’s been busy time at the Daintree Discovery Centre recently, with several wild Cassowaries making themselves known to excited visitors and staff. The individual male Cassowaries were seen cruising throughout the Centre, drinking and bathing themselves in Maclean’s creek.

Cassowary sightings have been on the increase at the Centre; it is not uncommon for Cassowaries and their chicks to begin to roam into new territory as the chicks develop and are able to travel further distances.

Daintree Discovery Centre Guide Chris Bennett, attributes the increase in sightings of the individual male Cassowaries to a decrease in the Cassowary’s natural food sources. “The excessive rain attributed to the extended wet season this year, has interfered with the fruiting cycles of many species.” explains Chris, “The rain has damaged the flower structure of many important plants and this has led to minimal fruiting. As a result, the cassowaries have had to extend their daily foraging for fruit over a larger area. It is not uncommon for them to cover up to 30 or 40 km in day.”

Though it’s not all bad news for the Cassowary, explains Professor Peter Pavlov “the Cassowary’s favourite fruit, the aptly named Cassowary Plum, is ripening into season now. Over the coming months, the Cassowary Plum will once again become their staple food source. We are delighted to have abundant naturally occurring sources of Cassowary Plums at the Daintree Discovery Centre, which will most certainly contribute to sustaining the increased number of sightings during that period.”

It caps off a six week stint of increased sightings at the Centre, much to the delight of excited tourists, who have been able to marvel at theses majestic animals, in and around the centre. “This is the best thing ever!” said one American tourist, thoroughly enjoying the sightings, along with the rest of her bus group.

(C) Daintree Discovery Centre

Professor Peter Pavlov, has dedicated his career to rainforest research and education. “Although the regular sightings are always welcomed, this does not indicate that that there are higher numbers of Cassowaries in the region” says Professor Pavlov, “the adult Cassowaries that live in the Daintree are using all of the remaining available rainforest for their food source and this is why it is so important to increase the rainforest area, by replanting degraded land to increase the cassowary numbers.

“We are proud to conduct a Daintree Rainforest revegetation program that sees the Daintree Discovery Centre plant over 2500 rainforest trees each year.”

Professor Pavlov says we can all do our part to protect and increase the Cassowary Population. “They are still listed as an endangered species and like any wild animal should not be approached. Humans and Dogs are the biggest threat to the decline in Cassowary numbers. We can all help the Cassowary by being cautious drivers in cassowary populated areas and making sure dogs and other animals are well secured.”

The Daintree Discovery Centre allows visitors the unique experience of viewing the wild animals from the elevated aerial walkways and boardwalks, allowing the majestic creatures to go about their business undisturbed.

Rainforest Rescue is currently negotiating with Daintree Discovery Centre to become a campaign partner for Save the Cassowary.

Enquiries: marketing@discoverthedaintree.com

The post Young Cassowary sightings on the increase at Daintree Discovery Centre appeared first on Save The Cassowary.