A highlight out of many highlights! We were super lucky to see this very rare male Cassowary with his three chicks cross right in front of our vehicle. We took the Daintree Safari tour since it gets out to the Daintree before the other tours. They have a record of seeing a Cassowary about 1/3 of the time. Female Cassowary choose the male based on how good they are at raising chicks and clearly this fellow is a great father.

Cassowary are one of the closest relatives of the dinosaurs and the Daintree is the oldest rainforest on earth. Many sketches of raptor dinosaurs actually look quite similar to the Cassowary. These sturdy feet and colored crest really did look like how I pictured dinosaurs. They are a key species for these forest since they are the only ones who can eat and disperse seeds for many of the fruiting trees growing in the forest. Unfortunately, they are critically endangered and an amazing remnant of our past.

 

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