Bad news for us along Black Mountain Road, Kuranda on Sat March 10 was a report
of a male Cassowary with a damaged leg, still with his two chicks and down
amongst the houses nearer the main road, where he quite often visits (and where
the two chicks from 2011 were killed by an uncontrolled and hastily relocated
dog in July 2011, as we learned not too long ago).
This is very worrying, reports said his leg was swollen, and we did not see him
at all on Sunday, when we had intermittent heavy rain all day. This morning Mar
12 he came in with the two 5 month babies, limping and with a nasty gash along
the heel of his left leg. This has been sprayed with Betadine and did not look
too swollen today, and QPWS are apparently pondering about bringing an
antibiotic filled rat in addition in a bid to stave off infection (and perhaps
avoid the sad fate of the famous Lake Barrine male years back, which got its
foot run over and was left untreated, then had to be put down).
He is currently sat down in the bushes near the house with the two chicks,
sheltering from the rain and not seeming too distressed beyond walking with a
limp. We shall see. It looks like he must have hit some sharp metal or maybe
glass, it's a deep gash some 20 cm long but not bleeding. He has been coming
here for getting on for 30 years and has a very good chick rearing rate, with
the current two (out of 5 originally) due to be with him for another 4 months
or so.
Phi & Sue Gregory
Kuranda FNQ
www. cassowary-house.com.au
===============================
To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to:
http://birding-aus.org
===============================
|
