📸 PhotoPhoto: en:User:Cburnett · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons Source
Southern Cassowary
Casuarius casuarius (Southern Cassowary · ヒクイドリ)
💡 Everyday Comparisons for Size, Mass & Speed
- 💡 Its body mass of 59 kg is similar to the weight of one grown adult human (Comparison).
- 💡 Its speed of about 50 km/h is similar to the city road speed limit (50 km/h) (Comparison).
- 💡 Its 12 cm claw is slightly shorter than one ballpoint pen (about 14 cm) (Comparison).
Reference standards: coach bus ~12 m, mid-size car ~4.9 m, compact car ~1 t, basketball hoop 3.05 m, credit card 8.56 cm.
Site-computed relative index from recorded values; not a formal scientific metric.
📖 1. Overview
The southern cassowary is a huge flightless bird living in the rainforests of New Guinea and northeastern Australia, and is the largest of the three cassowary species.
🦴 2. Anatomy & Morphology
Its wings are tiny, rendering it flightless, and its head bears a bony helmet-like casque. Its featherless head and neck are blue and red with two red hanging wattles, and its claws grow up to 12 cm long.
🔍 3. Ecology & Behavior
It mainly eats fallen fruit on the forest floor along with insects, small vertebrates, and fungi. A female mates with several males and lays about 4 eggs (4–8), after which the male alone incubates them for 47–61 days and cares for the chicks for about 9 months.
🇰🇷 4. Connection to Korea
No direct record connecting this species to Korea has been found.
📚 Sources & References
- • IUCN Red List LC (2018) — https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22678108/131902050
- • IUCN Red List category LC — latest assessment at iucnredlist.org
- • doi.org — avilist.v2026
- • iucnredlist.org — 131902050
- • wikidata.org — Q375790
- • commons.wikimedia.org — File:Double-wattled Cassowary.jpg
- • animaldiversity.org — Casuarius casuarius
- • Silhouette: PhyloPic — Kai Caspar · CC BY 4.0
Recorded dimensions are widely cited representative estimates from public literature and may vary by study or specimen.