World's deadliest bird turns 21

Happy 21st Birthday Princess

Keepers at WILD LIFE Sydney Zoo have prepared a special birthday party to celebrate the world’s deadliest bird turning 21.

To mark the special day, Princess the cassowary was treated to a giant ‘wine glass’ filled will red grapes and a fruit platter with a “21” carved in watermelon, prepared by his team of adoring keepers. Special VIP guests were also invited in for an encounter and enjoyed a watermelon cake.

The beloved male cassowary named Princess was mistaken for a female before a DNA test proved otherwise and is known to live up to his regal name.

WILD LIFE Sydney Zoo head keeper Renee Howell said, “Although cassowaries are capable of eating a whole mango, Princess expects his food to be cut up into bite size pieces and refuses to eat grapes with seeds in them. He’s also into his pampering and loves to be given a cool shower on a hot day”.

Princess consumes several kilograms of fruit, with up to 400 grams of red grapes, each day. The grapes are a high ‘reinforcer’ and are used in regular cassowary encounters, where guests might be surprised and thrilled with a back-of-house invitation to feed him through safety bars.   

Cassowary birthday party guest, Clark O’Neill said, “It was pretty incredible to get so close to such a majestic and vibrant creature. I would never have expected the world’s most deadly bird to take grapes so delicately from my hand”.

Princess was born in captivity in Rockhampton Queensland and has been a favourite at WILD LIFE Sydney Zoo for more than a decade.

Howell said “We love Princess for more than his diva behaviours. He is an endangered bird and it’s wonderful to have him here as an ambassador of his species, to help our guests understand the threats facing his wild relatives and what they can do to help protect them”.

“Today we celebrate him turning 21. We’d expect him to live to the age of 60 to 80 and look forward to celebrating many more birthdays with him,” Renee beamed.