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Short Stuff: Cassowary · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the short stuff. I'm flightless Josh.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: There's flightless Chuck. Flightless. Jerry's with us and we're speaking
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: about the cassowary, a type of bird that is you
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: guessed it, flight less. There's no less flight in a
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: bird than the cassowary. I am a right, flightless and dangerous,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: the most dangerous bird in the world. So where does
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: it live? Of course Australia, that's right, uh in this sucker.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: If you want to look up a picture, if you're
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: not driving or something, you should check it out. They
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: are sort of known as one of the closest um
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: relatives to dinosaurs bird wise that we have, specifically the velociraptor. Yeah.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: I love Jurassic Park, Chuck, how do you too? So um,
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: you know what's funny is I hadn't actually looked up
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: a picture of the cassowary until you said you should
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: look it up. I was like, oh, yeah, I've still
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: never seen one of these. Now I see it, I'm like, okay,
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: I've seen this, but they're amazing videos. They look like
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: a cross not across, but you're you can tell they're
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: definitely akin to EMUs ostriches um and they're huge. They're
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: really big. There there's there's three types and the one
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: of the types, I think this the southern is the
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  Speaker 1: second biggest bird in the world, next to the ostrich
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: or heaviest. I should say at least yes, they are
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: super big and super dangerous. They they're listed as a
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: Class two animal in Florida, along with alligators and cats.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: If you're asking why would they be in Florida if
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: they're native to Southeast Asian Australia, is because people can
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: if they jump through hoops, keep them as pets. But
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: they can kill you, which is what happened to a
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: seventy five year old man in Florida, in Florida whose
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: pet Cassowary killed him dead. And all this chuck, by
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: the way, is a demoustration of how why those in
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: the no call Florida Western Australia. Is that true? No?
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: But it it really it does line up. There's a
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: lot of stuff that wants to kill you in Florida too,
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: all right, and a lot of people who like to
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: keep that stuff that wants to kill you as pets
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: both places. And that's a bad combo. And I believe
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: crocodile Dundee were retired to Naples, Florida in the last
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: one coming together. I'm kidding, Okay, it would have been
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: pretty awesome though. Uh. Back to the castoary though. It
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: has these sort of bristly feathers that look like hair.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: If you see a video of them, if you're kind
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: of from a distance, it looks like kind of a
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: hairy thing. They have this blue face, a couple of
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: red wattles on the neck, and then this big cask
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: helmet on top of its head made of keratin that's
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: really like a literal helmet. Yeah, that's probably what makes
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: them seem the most dinosaurs are like, although they got
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: a lot of dinosaurs features that that helmet, like the
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: hard helmet. It's made of the same stuff like you said, Karen,
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: and that's what their beaks made of two and same
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: with their feathers too, but it's really tough structural skin. Um.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: I think there's dinosaurs that had that same exact thing. Yeah,
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: it looks like a a fin of a tri serratops. Yes,
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: just one of them, right, yeah, yeah, yeah, so it's
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: just the sarahtops right Well no, no, no, not the horns.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: I'm talking about the on the back. Are you okay?
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: I've been better? All right? Uh. The thing that's so
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: deadly about the castowary though, is not you're not gonna
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: get headbutted by that cask. Is you're gonna get clawed
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: by a three to five inch This is where the
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: velociraptor thing comes in, this three to five inch claw
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: that is super sharp. And all you have to do
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: is look at a video of the guy on YouTube
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  Speaker 1: with a basically a big shield in this cassowary coming
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: at him and jumping and kicking both of his legs
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  Speaker 1: with these clawset this guy and literally knocking us grown
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: man backwards. To know how scary this thing can be. Yeah,
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: it's like, um, I mean they're like, it's there. Those
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  Speaker 1: claws are super sharp, but their legs are also super
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: powerful too, so they pack a really big punch that's
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: also a really sharp punch that's been known to basically
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  Speaker 1: gut people like not only can it like make you
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: bleed pretty bad, it can reach your internal organs sometimes too.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: And the reason they're flightless is even though they're big,
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  Speaker 1: their little wings only extend fully extent about a foot
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  Speaker 1: from their potty, so they have no chance of flying
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  Speaker 1: they don't. One of the other things too, by their feathers.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: You said, it looks like hair. It's really good to
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  Speaker 1: protect them because they live in the forests with a
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: lot of dense underbrush, a lot of thorns, a lot
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  Speaker 1: of branches and stuff. And one of the the rees
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: behind why they think they have that horn on their head.
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: What's it call again? I want to say cask. The
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: reason that one of the reasons they think they have
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: the cask is um so that it can kind of
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  Speaker 1: run headlong through the forest without hurting its head. But
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: then also, um, those those thick, heavy feathers also protect
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: the body too from getting stabbed by thorns and things
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: like that. That's right, so let's should we take a break. Yeah,
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: let's all right. We'll talk more about the deadly cast
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: a wary right after this. Okay, chuck um, So we're
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: talking about the deadly cast a wary, which I mean,
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: it is deadly, but I don't I don't think it's
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: any more deadly. It's much less deadly even um or,
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  Speaker 1: you're much less likely to die by a castawary than
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: you are from saying like getting infection from a dog
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: bite or something like that. Right. Statistically speaking, yeah, I
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  Speaker 1: mean we we shouldn't disparage the castawary is deadly, like
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: they can kill and they have those sharp claws, but
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: they're not aggressive generally. They're not after you. Generally, if
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: you come upon them while they're while they have laid
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: their eggs or something, you may be in trouble, but
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: they generally want to stay away from people. Um. There
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: is another video that's pretty a little frightening. If they
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: would have put like scary music to it, it it would
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: have helped. But there was a woman on the beach
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: in Australia, I guess, and she filmed the whole thing.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: But this castawary was just walking toward her and she's
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: walking backwards and it keeps coming and it's pecking at
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: the phone. But after having seen that other video, I'm
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: just like on edge waiting for this thing to jump
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: up and slice her stomach open. It's intimidating and it's
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: a very large bird. And when it's coming at you
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: with those kind of crazy eyes and its heads duck
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: and back and forth and it's kind of pecking at you,
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: it seems like a velociraptor in that moment. Yeah, I
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: can imagine. Um. So, yeah, I think it's more just
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: like it's remarkable that a bird can kill you and
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: has before that, than it is like actually like a
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: super deadly bird. What's the deal with that wattle? They're
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: not sure, but one of the theories is that it's
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: basically like a current mood indicator, like current mood effervescent,
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: like a mood bring. It changes color brightness with their mood. Yeah,
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: that's not too bad, um. Or to maybe say like
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: I'm I'm robust and uh maybe like sexually perhaps, sure,
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: like check on my wattle exactly. They're also known as
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: a keystone species because what they do is they eat fruit,
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: tons of fruit, and they walk around and cover a
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: great area and poop that seed out. Uh. It goes
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: right through their digestive tracks, and they deposit the seeds
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: all over the place. So you get a much more
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: diverse uh fruit habitat in areas where they are popular. Yeah,
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: because yeah, I mean they're they're not only spreading the
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: seeds around when they poop it out. It's got all
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: sorts of nutrients to grow with, and it's just a
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: great great um uh commence all lists set up, I guess,
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  Speaker 1: uh They also are pretty stealth. They have this apparently
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: their call it's so low it's just on the edge
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  Speaker 1: of human hearing, so you may not even hear them
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  Speaker 1: coming at you. Yeah, and apparently though, like you can
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  Speaker 1: feel it in your chest if you happen to be
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  Speaker 1: near one when they call, like it rumbles in your chest.
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: I love it. These things are great. Um. Did we
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: ever say how big they get? Chuck? Uh? Yeah, he
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: said six six six and or so. Yeah, that's just
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: so enormous. But what I thought was really interesting is
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: um and at the very least the Southern castawary species. Uh,
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: the female is about a hundred and seventy pounds. The
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: males are a hundred and twenty five pounds, and even
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  Speaker 1: more interesting, the males are the ones that actually raise
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: the hatchlings. Did you know that? Well, I didn't until
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: I mean, I knew nothing about this thing until I
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: looked into it. But yeah, the female basically lazy eggs
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: and it's like, my work here is done. It's on you, yep,
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  Speaker 1: raise the kids, and the males do. They raise these kids,
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  Speaker 1: and the female goes off in mates with more males
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  Speaker 1: other males, And it makes total sense from a natural
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: selection standpoint, um, because that just means that more castawary
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  Speaker 1: chicks can be born, the more female cast wary can
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: go off and and mate with more male castawaries, as
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: long as the males are the ones raising the chicks.
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: That's pretty great, great idea, and it's great because their
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: numbers are dwindling. All three species are vulnerable or near threatened.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: Of course, humans have a lot to do with this
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  Speaker 1: loss of habitat because we're growing into their territory or
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: they're getting hit by cars stuff like that. Um, dogs
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: apparently if it's a young dog or a small dog,
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: the cassowary, Uh, like, there are dog attacks on record,
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: but if the dog gets bigger, they can be a
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: threat to the cassowary. Yeah, especially young cassowaries. Yeah, it's
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: all size. It's like whoever shoop up is the one threatened.
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: It's the law of nature, that's right. So there are
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: people working um to keep the cassowaries around, make sure
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: they don't go extinct. And like you said, it's typically
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: human encroachments. So people are buying back some of their
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: native habitats and just trying to set them off as
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: preserves and building ways around roadways, which is another big ing.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: We should do a short stuff on that sometime, basically
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: like nature highways that are overpasses in the woods, over
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: roads that go through the woods, and this is pretty cool. Yeah,
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: and maybe maybe we just did the short stuff on
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: it just now. I don't know if there's much more
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: to say about it, but I just think it's amazing looking.
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: I've seen pictures of them. They just look like grass
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: covered overpasses, almost like what are overpasses are going to
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: look like in when there's no more people left to
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: look like the last of us are Station eleven. Sure
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: you got anything else and did anything else? Well, since
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: we've got nothing else, everybody. This owe to Cassowaries is out.
• 11:46
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• 11:49
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