This message concerns Cassowary behaviour, but not sound or recording - in
case you wish to delete now.
Greg Winterflood, 29 Oct 2003, wrote:
>
> By the way the cassowary is also found in the Cape York Peninsula in
> far north Queensland, Australia, across the Torres Strait from Papua
> New Guinea.
>
Some further geographical information is relevant. Cape York Peninsula is
the north-eastern pointy bit of Australia. When discussing wildlife
distribution, one can easily buy an argument as to how far south the
"Peninsula" extends.
Down to Cairns is an approximation, if one accepts as the limit, the
latitude where the western coastline swings west and north. (Cairns is
about 400 miles south of the tip of Cape York.)
Cassowaries occur further south, down to about the latitude of Hinchinbrook=
,
the very large Island a bit more than half way from Cairns to Townsville,
nearly 600 miles from the Cape.
This history relates to a cassowary on the Palmerston Highway which runs
west from Innisfail (50 miles south of Cairns) to Ravenshoe on the Atherton
Tableland. I tell you all this to make the point that it took place nearly
1000 miles from Victoria, the home State of the unfortunate driver involved=
,
who understandably was not familiar with Cassowary behaviour.
The Cassowary was standing in the middle of the road. The Victorian pulled
up to let his family have a good look at this magnificent bird. He then
drove his car slowly up to the bird. This was the Cassowary's territory.
It saw no reason to move and simply stared back. The car stopped. The
Cassowary stood its ground.
Impasse! The driver reasonably, but as it turned out, unwisely, blew the
horn. Now this, the Cassowary took exception to. In its territory!
Unforgivable behaviour on the part of the automobile!
One kick of its powerful foot pushed the radiator back onto the fan which
punctured the core, and the life-blood of the cooling system flowed down th=
e
highway as the cassowary stalked majestically up the highway away from its
vanquished rival.
Syd Curtis in Brisbane, Australia.
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