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Garner's Beach Cassowary

Rehabilitation Centre Project

  • YEAR: 2020
  • STATE: Queensland
  • FOCUS AREAS: Saving Species/SDG 15: Life on Land

In Australia, the Cassowary is listed as endangered with numbers at around 1,500 to 2,000. But these are guesstimates; no one knows for sure. That’s because Cassowaries live alone in dense forests and they’re hard to count. Cassowary males and females look pretty much the same when they’re young, but females eventually grow about a foot taller, reaching some six feet. They start breeding at age four or five and can live 40 years or more.

FNPW support

This project was funded through generous donations from FNPW supporters across Australia and beyond.

Project overview

The birds are solitary aside from brief encounters during the breeding season. Females abandon their one-pound eggs soon after laying them, and males build a rudimentary nest on the forest floor and incubate up to five eggs for almost two months. After the chicks hatch, they follow the male for six to nine months as he protects them from predators such as wild pigs and dogs. He will also guide them to fruit trees within a home range several hundred acres in size.

Scientists studying Cassowary scat have identified the seeds of 300 plant species, making the bird a key player in spreading rain-forest plants over great distances.

Funds from an FNPW grant, in partnership with Rainforest Rescue, has allowed the Garner’s Beach Cassowary Rehabilitation Centre to continue its work supporting the rescue and rehabilitation of these amazing threatened species in the QLD rainforests.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COUNTRY

FNPW supports projects across Australia. In the spirit of reconciliation the we acknowledge the Traditional Owners of Country and recognise their continuing connection to land, waters and culture.

PROGRESS OF THIS PROJECT

This Project was in XXXX.

This project was funded by FNPW in 2020.

PROJECT PARTNERS

Rainforest Rescue is the lead organisation for this project.

Further information about our project partner can be found on their website:

www.rainforestrescue.org.au

 

Latest news on this project.

Thanks to your support, funding to feed and care for three sick and injured orphan Cassowary chicks for at least three months is ensured. This allowed the only Cassowary rehabilitation centre to remain open. Southern Cassowaries are endangered and as few as 2,000 remain in the wild. Encroaching development means that Cassowaries are more frequently the victims of car strikes, dog attacks, and diseases, and orphaned chicks can starve. The centre was at risk of closing down but now it can keep rehabilitating Cassowaries, including these special young chicks.

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