So what the heck is a Cassowary and do they have tails?

Michele: By now you've noticed that we've named this blog after a creature that lives in the coastal regions of far north Queensland, the Cassowary. At the top of our blog is a picture of a Cassowary taken by a professional photographer (Yay, creative commons!). This blog entry has a picture I took a few days ago of a Cassowary walking by the side of the road. These large flightless birds have crazy colors and an ungainly walk. It won't surprise you to hear that the Cassowary is related to the Emu and the Ostrich. Around these parts, the Cassowary is protected in part because they are rare and in part because lots of tourists come here to see them... This Cassowary that we saw is about 4 feet tall but they grow to over 5 feet. Like all things that grow in Australia, they can hurt you, but only if provoked. Okay, you caught me, I was joking. It only seems like all animals in Australia are to get us. I have no plans to provoke these large birds.

So far, we've only seen them along the side of the road. On a walk through the palm forests (to be blogged soon) we saw lots of Cassowary scat but didn't sight any the birds. The forest is so thick that a Cassowary could be nearby but you would miss it. For more information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassowary
More photos of the Cassowary we saw are on my facebook album
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