Dwarf Cassowary Natural History Illustrations: New Guinean Little Bird

Summary: Dwarf cassowary natural history illustrations tribute a black, blue, gray, red flightless bird that agro-industrialists terrify and villagers trap.

dwarf cassowary (Casuarius Bennetti), also known as Bennett's cassowary; April 19, 2013: Nick Hobgood, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Dwarf cassowary natural history illustrations allow an accurate, appreciable, astute acquaintance with the most abbreviated in physical size of northeastern Australia's and insular and mainland New Guinea's three acknowledged horned-head native species.

The dwarf cassowary bears the additional common names little, mooruk and mountain cassowary and Bennett's cassowary for American naturalist George Bennett (Jan. 31, 1804-Sep. 29, 1893). The scientific name Casuarius bennetti convokes northern Papuan words kasu ("horned") and weri ("head") and consolidates John Gould's (Sep. 14, 1804-Feb. 3, 1881) classification in 1857. The Casuariidae cassowary and emu flightless bird family member dwells up to 10,826.77 feet (3300 meters) above sea level in Japen, New Britain and New Guinea.

Dwarf cassowary natural history illustrations sometimes elaborate hilly, secondary-growth, steep-sloped, thick-vegetated highland forests and New Britain's lowland forests where two other extant cassowary species never exist.

Dwarf cassowaries feature the big feet, long legs, long necks, small heads and umbrella-like bodies of similarly flightless African ostriches, Australian emus and South American rheas.

Dwarf cassowaries and their genus's two other extant species get helmet-like head casques and inner-toed claws longer and sharper than each foot's two other clawed toes. They have the flattest, narrowest, shortest, smallest head casques of their Casuarius genus's three extant species and fleshy gray, horned, individual-specific, spongy color, shape and size.

Bennett's, dwarf, little, mooruk, mountain cassowaries journey through dark, dense, remote, steep-sloped, undisturbed forests because of ultraviolet and visible light-sensitive eyes, sure-footed legs and vibration-sensitive casques.

Dwarf cassowary natural history illustrations keep in Bennett's, dwarf, little, mooruk, mountain cassowary 4.3- to 4.8-inch- (10.92- to 12.19-centimeter-) long, gray, snapping lower and upper bills.

Dwarf cassowaries look black-bodied, blue-necked, dark-eyed, gray-limbed and red neck-patched like their two extant relatives but, unlike fellow cassowaries, flat-casqued, gray-headed, no-wattled, pink-cheeked and purple neck-spotted. They meet cassowary genus standards of high jumps minimally equivalent to their foot-to-shoulder height measurements and running speeds up to 31.07 miles (50 kilometers) per hour. They net 9.6-inch- (24.38-centimeter-) long, scaly feet (minus claw and toe lengths) and 3.25- to 4.92 foot- (0.99- to 149.96-centimeter-) long black-, coarse, glossy-, shaggy-, stiff-feathered bodies.

Dwarf cassowary natural history illustrations offer mature, 39- to 57-pound (17.69- to 25.86-kilogram) cassowaries and specimen ages obtainable from casque configuration, footprint size and neck wrinkles.

Dwarf cassowaries pass solitary lifestyles on side-by-side territories other than around prolifically fruiting shrubs and trees, at water bodies and during breeding months June through July.

Mothers-to-be queue up as many as four clutches of four to six green eggs for 49- to 52-day incubations, by each clutch's father-to-be, on forest floors. Their 3.2- to 3.6-foot- (0.98- to 1.09-meter-) tall fathers raise black-, brown-, white-striped hatchlings into brown-bodied six-month-olds, emancipated nine- to 18-month-olds and mature-bodied two- to four-year-olds. Paternal droppings and ticks and carrion, frogs, fruits, insects, lizards, mice, rats, snails and snakes respectively strengthen chicks and adults stressed by agro-industrialists, collectors and villagers.

Dwarf cassowary natural history illustrations treat the genus's tiniest juvenile and mature cassowaries, whose sustainability tends not to trouble the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Bennett's Cassowary (Casuarius Bennetti), also known as dwarf cassowary, illustration by English ornithologist and avian artist John Gould (Sept. 14, 1804-Feb. 3, 1881), lithography by English zoological illustrator Henry Constantine Richter (June 7, 1821-March 16, 1902); J. Gould's The Birds of Australia Supplement (1868), Plate 73, opposite page 144: Public Domain via Internet Archive

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

dwarf cassowary (Casuarius Bennetti), also known as Bennett's cassowary; April 19, 2013: Nick Hobgood, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Casuarius_bennetti_Drwarf_Cassowary_PNG_by_Nick_Hobgood.jpg?uselang=fr

Bennett's Cassowary (Casuarius Bennetti), also known as dwarf cassowary, illustration by English ornithologist and avian artist John Gould (Sept. 14, 1804-Feb. 3, 1881), lithography by English zoological illustrator Henry Constantine Richter (June 7, 1821-March 16, 1902); J. Gould's The Birds of Australia Supplement (1868), Plate 73, opposite page 144: Public Domain via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/stream/birdsAustraliasSuppGoul#page/73/mode/1up

For further information:

Bennett, George. 1860. "The Mooruk or Cassowary of New Britain, South Pacific Ocean (Casuarius Bennetti)." Gatherings of a Naturalist in Australasia: Being Observations Principally on the Animal and Vegetable Productions of New South Wales, New Zealand, and Some of the Austral Islands. Chapter XI: 243-264; Plate IV. London, England: John Van Voorst, MDCCCLX.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/50146249

"Cassowaries." Tropical Topics 2012. Cairns, Queensland, Australia: Wet Tropics Management Authority.
Available @ https://www.wettropics.gov.au/site/user-assets/docs/Cassowaries.pdf

Davies, S.J.J.F. (Stephen John James Frank). "Cassowaries (Casuariidae)." Pages 75-81 In: Michael Hutchins, Jerome A. Jackson, Walter. J. Bock and Donna Olendorf, eds. Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia. Second edition. Volume 8, Birds I: 75-81. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Group, 2002.

Gould, John. 1857. "On a New Species of Cassowary: Casuarius Bennetti Pl. CXXIX)." Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, part XXV (Dec. 8, 1857): 269-270. London, England: Printed for The Society by Taylor and Francis.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/12861341

Gould, John. 1865. "Sp. 18. Casuarius Bennetti, Gould. Mooruk." Handbook to the Birds of Australia, vol. II: 561-567. London, England: Printed for the Author by Taylor and Francis.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/13966586

Gould, John. 1868. "Casuarius Bennetti, Gould. Bennett's Cassowary." The Birds of Australia. Supplement: pages 143-144, Plates 72-73. London, England: Printed for the Author by Taylor and Francis.
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/stream/birdsAustraliasSuppGoul#page/72/mode/1up

Marriner, Derdriu. 6 June 2014. "Southern Cassowary Natural History Illustrations: Australian Big Bird." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2016/06/southern-cassowary-natural-history.html

Sclater, P.L. (Philip Lutley). 8 December 1863. "Notes on the Breeding of Bennett's Cassowary in the Society's Gardens." Proceedings of the Scientific Meetings of the Zoological Society of London for the Year 1863: 518-519; Plate XLII. London, England: Printed for The Society by Taylor and Francis.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/30681882
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/stream/proceedingsofgen63busi#page/518/mode/1up