Southern Cassowary

Our Cassowary is affectionately named Princess. Despite his feminine name, Princess is actually a male - just a cassowary who happens to be very high maintenance! Princess loves to have showers to cool down in the summer but he doesn't like to get his feet wet above his ankles! His favourite food includes grapes, cherry tomatoes and corn. Armed with a large, sharp claw on his inner toe and a fearsome kick, it is easy to see how the cassowary earned the "World's Deadliest Bird" title.

The cassowary is the largest native vertebrate in Australian rainforests. It is also the third tallest bird in the world, after the ostrich (#1) and the emu (#2). Similar to its relatives the emu and ostrich, cassowaries are a flightless bird, meaning that they can’t actually fly.

Unlike many other animals, it is the male cassowary that rears the young. They sit on their nest of eggs for around 8 weeks rarely leaving, to ensure they are protected at all times. Males are also less brightly coloured than females and smaller in size.