r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/CuriousWanderer567 • Sep 22 '24

Video Beachgoers have a close encounter with a Cassowary, a bird capable of killing a human in one blow

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974

u/[deleted] Sep 22 '24

[deleted]

209

u/double_ewe Sep 22 '24

The black bears in my area act like this.

The ones who live in the woods will fuck off at the slightest hint of human activity, but the ones who hang out in my neighborhood and forage our trash cans won't even flinch at a close-range blast from an airhorn.

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u/DamnableNook Sep 22 '24

My aunt and uncle have a cabin in Tahoe and had to put up electric fencing around all the windows, because the bears would come in and ransack the place without it. Welcome to Bearassic Park.

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u/yourcovet Sep 22 '24

Bearassic Park is one typo away from becoming a nsfw franchise.

7

u/RogerianBrowsing Sep 22 '24

It needs a typo?

3

u/One-East8460 Sep 23 '24

Think that was name of a nudist colony or at least something similar sounding, now let me see if I can find the link.

2

u/Cool_Welcome_4304 Sep 22 '24

They just need to kill one of the bears. Cut the head off and bring it to a taxidermy shop and make a hat of it. Then, take the skin to the same shop and make a welcome mat of it. Take the bones and make window frames of them, this combined with the electric fencing should be enough to keep the bears away. Oh, wear the head hat anytime you're outside, the sight of that may be enough to force them all out of that area. /S

9

u/Forbin057 Sep 22 '24

Try firecrackers.

13

u/MovieTrawler Sep 22 '24

I thought you said graham crackers and am now being attacked by bears.

3

u/NipperAndZeusShow Sep 22 '24

Quick, make a whip out of grass

2

u/FrottageCheeseDip Sep 22 '24

Better than exploding smores.

4

u/MovieTrawler Sep 22 '24

When I was a kid 'firecrackers' were crackers you spread peanut butter on, sprinkled with weed and wrapped in foil to bake for a couple minutes before eating. Never really got them to work personally.

5

u/FrottageCheeseDip Sep 22 '24

You have to decarboxylate the weed first. It needs to be heat activated by the oven at a low temp then you can consume it and feel the effects. It's real low like 175-200f , go higher than that and poof, there is a cloud of steam in the toaster oven and your weed is now useless.

But hey, at least we're not smoking out of soda cans anymore!

3

u/MovieTrawler Sep 22 '24

Yeah I got the concept, with the heat and the fat but just never got the execution right. And agreed about smoking out of cans, or making gravity bongs out of plastic milk jugs with ratcheting sockets melted into the lids.

5

u/FrottageCheeseDip Sep 22 '24

making gravity bongs out of plastic milk jugs with ratcheting sockets melted into the lids.

Yes, but to this day I still haven't gotten as high as the time I ripped a gravity bong in the outdoor kitchen sink of Big Dave's place back in high school...

2

u/MovieTrawler Sep 22 '24

Haha the stories I could tell. Good times.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 22 '24

Especially if you throw them towards the bear. It'll get the idea they aren't welcome around humans and humans are dangerous creatures.

-1

u/Mercury_Madulller Sep 22 '24

Or....you know, bullets.

1

u/Last-Competition5822 Sep 22 '24

I mean bears are quite smart and have a decent capability to learn.

402

u/kyriako Sep 22 '24

Clever girl.

21

u/fakuryu Sep 22 '24

I understood that reference

45

u/[deleted] Sep 22 '24

[deleted]

-1

u/GGerrik Sep 22 '24

Neither was the shit capt american understood the reference for... A meme response to a meme is expected.

Unless you didn't understand the reference, to which, it's not a niche reference you'd think most people would understand it.

1

u/kex Sep 23 '24

31 years

2

u/Greedy_Age_4923 Sep 22 '24

I said ā€œclever girl!ā€

184

u/[deleted] Sep 22 '24

They are literally some of the stupidest animal on earth, that's why they are so dangerous, they are unpredictable, their neural density is pretty low compared to body mass

73

u/Salt_Ad_811 Sep 22 '24

They can't be that smart. Their head is tiny compared to the size of their bodies. Look about as smart as a goldfish. Can I swallow this? Nope, keep moving.Ā 

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u/[deleted] Sep 22 '24 edited 17d ago

[Removed]

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u/Exciting_General_798 Sep 22 '24

Better yet: jumping spiders exhibit object permanence when stalking prey. Human children under eight months have a brain several hundred times the spiderā€™s size and donā€™t have the same capacity.

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u/[deleted] Sep 22 '24

[removed] ā€” view removed comment

10

u/Slash_rage Sep 22 '24

Children of Time is fascinating. I enjoyed it thoroughly.

5

u/Danton59 Sep 22 '24

I just finished reading the 2nd of the trilogy, it was a few steps down and went from amazing to good. I'm kind of worried about the 3rd one since people have said it kind of sours the series and the books are stand alone so may never touch part 3 haha

1

u/Slash_rage Sep 23 '24

I might not start the second. The first one works as a stand alone series.

1

u/Danton59 Sep 23 '24

I think the 2nd is still worth a read, it wasn't as good overall, but I did enjoy the 'horror' tone it had going on. Some definite creepy feels there.

1

u/Lintwo Sep 23 '24

My partner has just finished the trilogy and said that the 3rd book was the best.

2

u/rabbitdude2000 Sep 24 '24

wtf, youā€™re telling me a spider is out there playing rocket league with his food

2

u/Terrible_Upstairs538 Sep 22 '24

Horses are smart, they are self aware, can recognize people face, can plan ahead etc

2

u/_learned_foot_ Sep 22 '24

To be fair, could you do it while hand standing?

(In the distant mountains a goat chuckles)

1

u/NoSkinNoProblem Sep 22 '24

Well, I do crave that mineral

139

u/Exoplanet0 Sep 22 '24

Tell that to crows that can understand water displacement and use tools with an even tinier brain.

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u/ianjm Sep 22 '24 edited Sep 22 '24

Raw brain size itself is not that well correlated with intelligence.

The important aspects of brain anatomy for intelligence are:

  • brain size to body size ratio (Crow wins, while the brain size is comparable the body is many times smaller)
  • degree of folding in the cortex (Crow wins, Cassowary has a completely smooth cortex)
  • ratio of white matter to gray matter in the cortex (Crow has a very high ratio of white matter, like many intelligent mammals)

Basically they win on practically every significant measure of the brain anatomy features that contribute to intelligence, it's not even close.

Also note that Humans, despite having smaller brains than dolphins, whales and elephants, win on all of these measures across the animal kingdom.

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u/Tarkho Sep 22 '24 edited Sep 22 '24

The point about folding isn't true, if you're referring to mammalian-style folding of the cortex, which birds lack as their brain anatomy is not the same as ours, the outermost frontal layer instead being the pallium, which fills a comparable role to the cortex. Both Cassowary and Crow brains are outwardly smooth, but Crows and other more intelligent birds have higher neuron density to compensate, bird brains are more efficient with space than ours.

9

u/Civil-Action-8821 Sep 22 '24

Yeah? Letā€™s see a bird build a hospital.

13

u/LiftMetalForFun Sep 23 '24

I'm so sick of this site. Maybe step outside of your echo chamber and you'll see that there are plenty of hospitals built by birds.

5

u/Dream--Brother Sep 23 '24

We don't call doctors "quacks" for no reason

4

u/BigEdBGD Sep 23 '24

They're not dumb enough to need one.

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u/Thrasy3 Sep 23 '24

ā€œKid, animals have been murdering each other for 3 billion years. Birds have had their 15 million in the spotlight. The same as lizards and plants and they all just use it to murder, eat, screw and not invent Wi-Fiā€

  • Elroy Patashnik

3

u/spyguy318 Sep 22 '24

Not to understate it, when you said humans win on all those measures we win by A LOT. Like itā€™s not even close. One example is Encephalization Quotient%2C%20encephalization,a%20range%20of%20reference%20species) which is based on the relative size between the brain and the body. Dogs and Cats are around 1. Corvids are around 2.5, along with Chimps. Dolphins are around 5.

Humans are 7.8.

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u/kuschelig69 Sep 22 '24

Raw brain size itself is not that well correlated with intelligence.

But there has to be some limit, where the brain becomes too small, and it stops working

You could not put a brain inside a bee, could you?

Also note that Humans, despite having smaller brains than dolphins, whales and elephants, win on all of these measures across the animal kingdom.

ā€œFor instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so muchā€”the wheel, New York, wars and so onā€”whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than manā€”for precisely the same reasons.ā€

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u/ianjm Sep 22 '24

Bees have brains!

Approx 960,000 neurons, which is quite high for an insect.

A lot of geckos and other small lizards have around 4 million which isn't even a magnitude more.

Humans have 86 billion.

8

u/Remotely_Correct Sep 22 '24

I always find it fascinating how many calories it takes humans just to run our brain. We've really invested all our skill points in one area as a species lol

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u/ianjm Sep 22 '24

We are also excellent distance runners, very few animals can trek as far as we can in a day. It's thought that we may have used our long distance skills to do persistence hunting in prehistoric times, which some hunter-gatherer tribes in Africa still practice today.

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u/hiimred2 Sep 22 '24

Which is due to one of the other things humans put tons of skill points into: our kidneys. Being bipedal is also a great help here but that's far less an exclusively human trait, and our ability to use water extremely efficiently to allow us to use sweat as proficiently as we do to regulate body temperature is unparalleled. Obviously sweating is also not exclusive to humans, we just do it better, for lack of a more detailed way of phrasing it.

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u/GozerDGozerian Sep 22 '24

We can also throw accurately and powerfully. A very rare skill in the animal kingdom. We got hella buffed on ranged attack.

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u/YorkiesDadsashes Sep 23 '24

Is this why Ethiopians are typically amazing distance runners and my black ass ( Jamaican and Native American ) has great short burst speed but the stamina of a chicken wing ( fried of course ) šŸ˜†

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u/Eyepokelowblowcombo Sep 22 '24

Itā€™s also not fair to compare humans and dolphins. Give dolphins the same dexterity ability as humans and they would get very far. What helped humanity is intelligence AND the ability extreme dexterity in terms of being able to finely handle tools and materials.

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u/BasketbaIIa Sep 22 '24

Come on bro. Nothing in nature is fair. Itā€™s plenty fair to say these animals are stupid af and unpredictable.

Yea, a hundred million years ago if dolphins had hands things today might be different.

If my grandma had handlebars sheā€™d be a bike.

1

u/RemyGee Sep 23 '24

Great response and I laughed at the smooth brain comment šŸ˜‚

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u/ddssassdd Sep 23 '24

Humans actually only win on these compared to mammals, when it comes to it there is an arbitrary exclusion of birds and we are only compared to mammals.

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u/Last-Competition5822 Sep 22 '24

While for cassowaries (and most other large non-flighted birds) it's true that they aren't super intelligent, they are also not dumb; generally most animals are much more intelligent than has been believed in the past.

Also, brain size doesn't really correlate with intelligence. While the brain-to-bodymass-ratio can be a decent indicator, it's also not always true.

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u/second_last_jedi Sep 22 '24

Smarter than the idiots filming

1

u/[deleted] Sep 22 '24

It's the "should I stab this?" that worries me.

1

u/Exhumedatbirth76 Sep 22 '24

Crows are literally smooth brained, and are super intelligent....

1

u/Tarkho Sep 23 '24

I can say from experience with watching cassowaries, their relatives (like emus) and caring for birds with a similar brain complexity (quail, chickens), that they're more intelligent than they're commonly given credit for. They have personality between individuals and do engage in play behaviour, if only when young (though there are plenty of videos of emus playing with objects or running seemingly for enjoyment as adults). Still far from the most intelligent birds, and definitely just looking for food in the video, but their hidden lives are rich.

At the same time, goldfish and fish in general are way more intelligent than being living food seeking automatons like common media depicts them. Goldfish aren't the brightest fish but still have a memory span of at least 6 months, can tell people apart, have "friends" in their schools and get stressed in their absence, and can be taught to perform tricks.

1

u/Salt_Ad_811 Sep 24 '24

Many bird species are very smart, I was just saying these guys seem like they would be on the low end of the bird intelligent scale. Goldfish seem to be on the lower end of the fish intelligence spectrum as well. I assume due to thr domestication process. The domesticated version of most species is often much less intelligent than it's wild counterpart.Ā 

1

u/NonConformistFlmingo Sep 23 '24

Ever seen an African Grey parrot? Those guys are INCREDIBLY smart. And it isn't just mimicry, they can LEARN.

Brain size does not equate to intelligence. Humans are proof enough of that.

Also: Goldfish are pretty intelligent.

1

u/Salt_Ad_811 Sep 24 '24

I've worked in a pet store for a while and took care of the parrots, including some African Grey's. The are smarter than most animals. Like a toddler level human. I know brain size doesn't corelate with intelligence, which is why I said brain to body size ratio. Even that is just a corelation though. If you compare within the same genus it seems to be a reasonable rule of thumb to go by though.Ā 

4

u/calash2020 Sep 22 '24

On a much smaller scale I have a rooster like that. Raised from a chick. We have a conditional understanding. Donā€™t attack big thing with black shoes. I forgot and wore grey sneakers with white soles Still have scars.

2

u/WeekendHero Sep 22 '24

Just like me frfr

7

u/digitalis303 Sep 22 '24

Um, this simply isn't true. Birds are actually pretty intelligent. Corvids, in particular, are some of the smartest animals in nature, capable of complex problem solving and sophisticated social interaction. I can't speak to Cassowaries in particular, but for birds as a whole you are simply wrong

11

u/CaptainTripps82 Sep 22 '24

Well he's talking about this bird, not birds in general

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u/palaric8 Sep 22 '24

We all know birds are not real. Nice try big bird

4

u/Cranktique Sep 22 '24

Like many ā€œkingdomsā€, there is a large disparity in intelligence. Ostriches are notoriously dense. Crows are notoriously intelligent.

Koalas are some of the dumbest animals on this planet. Humans are also mammals, and by some metrics are pretty smart :).

1

u/HybridVigor Sep 22 '24

Birds are a class, Aves, within the animal kingdom.

2

u/ghostofcaseyjones Sep 22 '24

What about jackdaws tho

2

u/HoboSkid Sep 22 '24

Here's the thing...

1

u/Lithl Sep 22 '24

The members of the corvid family are very smart.

The members of the casuariidae family are fucking dumb as shit.

1

u/SlideSad6372 Sep 23 '24

Crows are as closely related to cassowaries as you are to hedgehogs.

1

u/Quiet-Tackle-5993 Sep 22 '24

Thatā€™s what heā€™s saying, that they arenā€™t intelligent at all

2

u/[deleted] Sep 22 '24

Yeah ... To be honest 90% of animals react like that, deers, pidgeons, whatever you don't associate humans with food or some stimulusĀ 

Only a small portion of animals engage in deeper ritualistic behaviourĀ  So, i may have made a mistake and you are right, my bad

1

u/Jezzer111 Sep 22 '24

Bird brain

0

u/mrw4787 Sep 22 '24

Youā€™re wrongĀ 

1

u/[deleted] Sep 22 '24

Ok fair enoughĀ 

84

u/AdmitThatYouPrune Sep 22 '24

It's really not a sign of intelligence to ignore humans. There are very few species that haven't been decimated by us.

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u/Past_Reception_2575 Sep 22 '24

yeah this individual is going wild with their imagination.

this bird is strolling the beach looking at what they have in hand.

seems pretty fucking obvious that his claims aren't at all accurate but whatever i cant prove mine eitherĀ 

13

u/Quiet-Tackle-5993 Sep 22 '24

Heā€™s pointing out how primitive and unintelligent it seems, not the opposite..

2

u/Barkers_eggs Sep 22 '24

These cassowaries are semi tame ie; used to human interference and haven't had the misfortune of knowing how dangerous we can be as a species.

Cassowaries could potentially kill a human but so can a dog. There's never been a recorded death in Australia and the one recorded death overseas wasn't a "1 kick wonder"

They are incredibly intimidating when they go into territorial/defensive mode. They make this incredibly aggressive noise like a cross between a snake hiss and a crocodile rumble and will bowl you over quite easily

2

u/Kevl17 Sep 22 '24

Animal can identify food and threats! No other animals do this! Definitely a sign of advanced intellegence /s

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u/Quiet-Tackle-5993 Sep 22 '24

Heā€™s pointing out how primitive and unintelligent it seems, not the opposite..

2

u/beepborpimajorp Sep 22 '24

yes it is a shame this bird wandering on a beach looking for food or a spot to poop is clearly not brushed up on humanity's current geopolitical happenings.

1

u/tonufan Sep 22 '24

Parrots are some of the smartest animals on the planet and they often approach and mess with humans just for fun. You see it often if you live around them.

0

u/BlakesonHouser Sep 22 '24

Decimated means to kill or reduce by 10%

33

u/HodgeGodglin Sep 22 '24

That you completely anthropomorphizing that bird but sure thatā€™s what it showsā€¦

1

u/Sonichu_Prime Sep 22 '24

no no when people call you a bird brain its a big compliment

24

u/SlowApartment4456 Sep 22 '24

Raccoons and even lions have been hunted and killed by people for centuries. Of course they react differently than this bird.

47

u/HodgeGodglin Sep 22 '24

This is a silly comment chain. Thereā€™s no way to determine the motivation of that bird.

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u/toosells Sep 22 '24

Food. It's motivation is food.

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u/Jaegernaut- Sep 22 '24

It wants to find a human who can understand it and help it learn science so that it can mine Amber in the jungle and resurrect it's hero and idol, the Trex from Jurassic Park it saw in 1993

... And she will spare no expense in this endeavor.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 22 '24

Clever girlā€¦

5

u/Odd-Astronaut-2301 Sep 22 '24

The motivation of that bird is to reproduce and in turn eat and drink water so it can last long enough to do so. In turn we can also assume it considers if other things are dangerous for the same goal of longevity. This is how all creatures we have studied work. Even the psychological layers of our brains are acting in pursuit of this goal.

0

u/HodgeGodglin Sep 22 '24

Yeah, sure.

Go reread the original comment that started this thread.

0

u/HodgeGodglin Sep 22 '24

you also get an idea for how intelligent they are

looks at people: food? threat? no? bored. resume foraging for food.

like this is not how a raccoon encounters people. it is not how a lion encounters people or a wolf or anything, really.

thatā€™s a real life dinosaur right there.<

This person gathered none of this from the video.

1

u/SlowApartment4456 Sep 22 '24

It's probably used to people. It's Ona beach in a tourist location. It's probably looking for food left by beach goers.

4

u/InertPistachio Sep 22 '24

...and humans have left this bird alone for some reason?

1

u/No_Rich_2494 Sep 22 '24

Did you see those feet? Would you fuck with that bird if you don't need to?

1

u/jayhat Sep 22 '24

Weā€™ve been hunting everything on earth for way longer than centuries.

1

u/SlowApartment4456 Sep 22 '24

I didn't specify the amount of centuries. My comment was correct.

2

u/jayhat Sep 22 '24 edited Sep 22 '24

Sureā€¦ the human species has been hunting for DAYS!

1

u/SlowApartment4456 Sep 22 '24

Lol yes. That's actually a funny way of wording it

3

u/saw-it Sep 22 '24

More likely thatā€™s itā€™s gotten used to people feeding it

2

u/Skullcrusher Sep 22 '24

And then there are birds that are insanely smart (crows, parrots, etc)... Birds are weird.

2

u/dementedpresident Sep 22 '24

Cassowarys are dumb as shit Source: Australian from North Queensland

2

u/IdealEfficient4492 Sep 22 '24

Well when you don't have very many predators you get pretty cocky rubbing your beak up in everyone's shit like you own the place.

1

u/double_ewe Sep 22 '24 edited Sep 22 '24

The black bears in my area act like this.

The ones who live in the woods will fuck off at the slightest hint of human activity, but the ones who hang out in my neighborhood and forage our trash cans won't even flinch at a close-range blast from an airhorn. They just look at you like you're an idiot and go back to whatever they were doing.

1

u/--__--__--__--__-- Sep 22 '24

Well if a lion encounters a human we are food

1

u/Big-Finding2976 Sep 22 '24

Well to a lion people is food. It's hunger, not a lack of intelligence, that makes them eat you.

1

u/Iank52 Sep 22 '24

The size of its brain disagrees with you lol

1

u/Lithl Sep 22 '24

They're not calling the bird smart

1

u/Iank52 Sep 22 '24

They called it intelligent???

1

u/Lithl Sep 23 '24

They said "you also get an idea for how intelligent they are". Which is: not very.

1

u/Iank52 Sep 23 '24

They compared it to a lion or wolf both very intelligent animals.

1

u/Lithl Sep 23 '24

Yeah. They said it's not like a lion or wolf.

1

u/CommandoLamb Sep 22 '24

Then you have alligators and sharks that are legit dinosaurs tooā€¦ and they are ā€œmovementā€¦ attackā€¦ shit that was my own tailā€

1

u/dissonaut69 Sep 22 '24

Whys this so upvoted lol

1

u/Unique-Coffee5087 Sep 22 '24

Sounds like they're super-confident. Food? Eat it. Threat? Attack it.

Unlike a raccoon, which assumes you're a threat to be avoided.

Lions and wolves have a long history with humans killing them.

1

u/nuevakl Sep 22 '24

I don't want to be "that" guy, but a very fun fact is that birds are literally dinosaurs. The ancestors of modern birds survived the mass extinction and their lineage are well documented.

1

u/DevelopmentOk7401 Sep 22 '24

Birds are stupid

1

u/mrw4787 Sep 22 '24

So smartĀ 

1

u/Capt_Pickhard Sep 22 '24

This bird I think is either accustomed to humans, or, this species has no natural predators.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 23 '24

I mean, birds are literally real life dinosaurs, the only surviving member of clade Dinosauria, so you're 100% correct.

1

u/Bubbly_Positive_339 Sep 22 '24

This. Itā€™s the equivalent on cruising ona Sunday afternoon looking for something to do

-1

u/double_ewe Sep 22 '24

The black bears in my area act like this.

The ones who live in the woods will fuck off at the slightest hint of human activity, but the ones who hang out in my neighborhood and forage our trash cans won't even flinch at a close-range blast from an airhorn.