The cassowary is a large bird which can stand up to two metres tall, and is highly endangered due to having lost much of its natural habitat with rainforest clearing in Australia.
The Daintree is one of the very few places in the world where this ancient bird still survives.
While you may be able to see them in a zoo or wildlife park nothing beats meeting these prehistoric animals in the wild.
The cassowary is related to the emu, African ostrich, New Zealand kiwi and the South American rhea,

The standard family life of cassowaries is not all that romantic.
Males have their own territory and females cruise around different male's territories, mating with different males. At some point she will sit down and lay her eggs and the male who happens to be there will sit on them for 40 days and then raise the chicks for the next year or so by himself.

Around Rainforest Hideaway we have some cassowaries that have broken with tradition as we have seen them walking around together on and off for years now.

Around this house we are fortunate to see the cassowaries frequently. Over the years we have seen several generations grow up from fragile little chicks to juveniles and adults.
In 2012 we were even lucky enough to see the cassowaries mating on our door step!