Green | October 04, 2008 | 2 comments

Meet the world's most dangerous bird: cassowaries

source: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/phenomena-200810.html

Image
KefKef
Ripe fruit plunks to the ground and rolls to the road at my left. That instant, the cassowary bursts from a tangle of ferns outside Clump Mountain National Park near Mission Beach, Australia. The bird's sharp beak is pointed roughly at my neck. Her eyes bulge. She probably weighs about 140 pounds, and as she thumps past me her red wattles swing to and fro and her black feathers give off an almost menacing shimmer. Local residents call her Barbara, but somehow the name doesn't fit the creature in front of me. She looks like a giant, prehistoric turkey—a turkey, however, that could disembowel me with a swipe of its nearly five-inch claws. Luckily, she just wants the mango, which she scoops up whole and mashes with her beak.

To read more of this click the link:
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/phenomena-200810.htmledit
  1. groups:
    Green,   WTF,   Earth and Science,   Animal Videos and News,   1 more
  2. tags:
    WTF,  Green,  Earth and Science,  World,  3 more
  3.     
    |

2 comments // Meet the world's most dangerous bird: cassowaries

more from Green:
from the community

top videos