The Cassowary nest had 8 startling lime-green eggs on June 25, but I fear it is
not being incubated as the pair are still around here most mornings. The clutch
has gone from 4 on May 31 to 7 on June 11 and now 8 on June 25. We will
monitor very discreetly from a distance.
Reference to HANZAB Vol 1 Part A (!990) is interesting as there is a lot more
information now available, and I really need to get another paper written up to
document whet we have learned over the years ( I published one in an obscure
behavioural journal some years back). The clutch size given in HANZAB is
between 3-5, not well known, and incubation at 30 days seems way too short.
Life expectancy is given as 13-14 years , but the male here is at least 25.
I have never heard them calling at night, I wonder if that was confused with
something else? I have a small collection of calls and missed a new one the
other day, when the female squatted right down, extended her neck horizontally
and gave a a single long low infra-sonic type call, longer lasting than the
usual departure call given by the male, repeated 2-3 times. It is hard to get
these as the calling is very intermittent. This single call is we believe a
mating invitation and can bring the male quickly in from some distance, though
in this case no mating resulted.
HANZAB also states they blush or change colour, and again we have never seen
any evidence of this in our 14 years of almost daily contacts with this species
and thousands of sightings. I do think they colour up more when breeding is
under way and fade off slightly as the mating intensity declines, but I have
yet to see one blush.
Phil & Sue Gregory
www cassowary-house.com.au
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