Description: Huge, flightless, three-toed terrestrial birds with long necks and legs and a prominent casque on the head. The feathers are black. they appear hair like and rather shaggy. The legs are greyish and the casque, beak and face are black. The bare parts on the throat and neck are generally blue with red patches but the colours are variable with their mood and the season. The casque is short. The wings are very much reduced and are reduced to 5 or 6 bare quils that curve round under the birds body, presumably protecting them from sharp twigs and throns. They have only three toes and each is equipped with a stout claw. The inner toe is formidable bearing a large dagger like claw. They lack wattels but do have a red wart on their throat and a pink patch on their cheek, these are occasioally absent. The casque is generally long and the bare parts brighter in females.
Size: 100-110 cm.
Weight: 17.6 kg.
Senses: They have powerful legs and feet and can reach speeds of up to 50km/h and jump about 1.5 m from standing. They are also good swimmers, and they can easily cross lakes and rivers.
Habitat: Forests and secondary growth in hills and mountains, up to 3000 m. In NE New Guinea they are also found in lowland forests, where other species are absebt.
Range: They hold terriotires all year round, they have fixed paths that they follow to good food sources and to the river or lake in their territory to drink from. Males use a threatening display to warn other males away from their terriotry during the breeding season, this involves the bird birstling up all the feathers towards the rump and holding its body arached upwards, making the bird seem larger. Then they puff out their neck and look downwards, at their own feet, making a booming sound and shaking all over.
Distribution: New Guinea, Japen Island (off NW New Guinea), New Britain where they are presumed an introduced species.
Status: Not globally threatened. Generally scarce, though they are common in some parts of New Guinea. They have become rare or completely absent in some areas due to hunting pressure.
Daily Rhythm: They are most active during the early morning and late afternoon. Sometimes they are also active on moonlit nights. In the middle of the day they tend to rest, using regular sites where they often sit in the sun and food is close by usually. Most of their waking hours are spent searching for food on the forest floor.
Voice: They produce a variety of different sounds, these vary with their mood and the activity in which they are engaged. It is thought that they are generally silent outside the breeding season however. The most typical call is a rumbling sound, this serves as a warning to other birds that they are too close to another territory. Other sounds include hisses, whistles, low rumbling growls, bill clapping and loud roaring in fights. During breeding malesutter low "boo-boo-boo" calls, these are most frequently heard at the start of the season and lessen towards the end. The sound seems to accomapny copultaion, the males vocalize just before they copulate. While the male is caring for his chicks he keeps in touch with them by making a coughing sound.
Enemies: Feral pigs are a serious threat to populations as they take their eggs. Birds of prey and large reptiles often take chicks. Usually a cassowary will flee from any disturbance and they are quite shy birds, however when one is cornered, accompanying young or competeing for mating rites, they can become quite aggressive. An attack is usually preceeded by a display in which the bird arches its body upwards, bristling its feathers up towards its rump, making itself appear larger, then it bends its neck downwards and points its bill towards its feet, it then procceds with a deep booming sound, the neck puffed out and the enitre bird shaking. When they must follow through with their threat and actually attack they raise their bodies high and kick out with both feet at once, sometimes they will run past their adversary and kick out as they pass. This attack can prove fatal as the large dagger like claws on the inner toe can inflict mortal slashes on its victime. Men and their dogs have been killed in such a way. Although they can kill their adversaries they whould always rather flee, and when persued they will rush through thick vegetation, the neck and head stretched out in front, protected by the casque and the stiff primary quills protecting the underparts.
Prey: Mainly fallen fruits, also fungi, invertebrates and small vertebrates.
Food and Feeding: Fruit is generally taken from the ground and only occasionally taken from living plants. Foraging birds wander slowly along, they use the same tracks day after day and so they have paths running throughout their ranges along which they feed. They pick up food in their beaks and toss it up so that they can swallow it straight down. Their patchs are usually littered with multicoloured droppings, these contain seeds and partly digested fruits. There are certain sites that many birds will visit, such as a large forest clearing where many fruits fall to the ground. Here they come independantly from one another and are thought never, or rarely to meet in such places. They swallow stones to help break down food i nthe gizzard. Water is taken either in a standing or sitting possition and they are most often seen at forest streams.
Grouping: They are solitary except during the breeding period.
Breeding: They may breed throughout the year. When a male wishes to initiate breeding he will appraoch the female and then hold his body in an arch, bristling up his feathers and looking at his feet, then he inflates his necka nd booms at the female with his body shaking all over, this display forms but a part of the courtship display, if at anytime the female threatens the male, he will run away, avoiding injury from the larger and heavier female. During the breeding period males occupy a territory of about 1-5 km squared. When a female enters this territory he will repeatedly approach her, raising the plumage along his back, gradually she will accept him and will allow him to remain by her side. Later the male will begin the courtship ritual, circling the female with his throat puffed out and making a rumbling "boo-booooo-boo" sound. Sometimes the female rasies her plumage and circles the male also, in this case the female leads the male. When the female is ready to copulate she croches down, and the male begins to apease her by pecking at the plumage on her back and cleaning her head, he will also stroke her side with his foot while he rests all his weight on the other. Finally copulation takes place. The pair remain togehter for a few weeks during which the female lays her eggs in their nest. Once the female has laid all of her clutch she leaves the nest site and her mate, often to seek another mate. Most females lay 2-3 clutches each year.
Gestation: Incubation takes about 7 weeks.
Litter Size: 3-5 eggs are laid in each clutch.
Young Description: Juveniles are uniform brown, with dull bare parts and rudimentary casques. This juvenile plaumge is gained when the birds are 3-6 months old, before this the chicks are striped with yellowish beaks and legs. They reach adult size when they are 1-2 years old, the black plumage is not complete until they are about 3 years old. The casque and the wattles continue to grow and the bare parts become more colourful.
Nest: The nest is normally made between buttressed tree roots.
Young Care: The male incubates and cares for the young alone. The chicks can walk within hours of hatching and within about 2 days the male leads the chicks away from their nest. The chicks are fed by the male, he finds food on the ground and passes it to them for the first few weeks, he also protects them from predators, including men. After about 9 months the chicks leave their parent. After leaving the safty of their parent juveniles stay together for some times.
Sexual Maturity: 3 1/2 years, though males can often breed at 2 years.
Longevity: Estimated at 12-19 years, they have lived 18-40 years in captivity.

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