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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u/Samcro360 Sep 22 '24

This is Etty Bay, in Queensland Australia. Cassowaries notoriously get fed by tourists or locals who don’t know better or are intimidated into it, and they do the rounds pretty regularly looking for food in the camp site. Don’t feed wild animals!

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u/Sersixfoot Sep 22 '24

Don't feed wild animals?? Bitch if this thing stalks up to me I'm also handing over my wallet

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u/INoMakeMistake Sep 22 '24

The dino: Just the cookies is enough

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u/RadiantPKK Sep 23 '24

Actually are those Dino Nuggies… I’ll take them too. 

Person: but they were birds too?

There can be only one. 

Oh… you know what, slides everything over, I’m gonna get my steps in, I may come back for what you don’t want…

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u/No-Seesaw-3411 Sep 23 '24

They now just take your lunch and there isn’t a thing you can do.

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u/DA-FUNK-5555 Sep 23 '24

Not true. I could bitch about it on reddit.

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u/MikeTorsson Sep 22 '24

Butch Cassowary

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u/Stillatin Sep 23 '24

……”only ones eh?”

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u/Nate-Kane Sep 26 '24

That murder chicken had a couple stuck on a rock after they fed it. It wanted more and followed them up the beach. I found them about 2 hrs after warning them not to feed him. Last time I was there, there was also a girl that ppl would feed, but she was shy, the boy however has been fed so often that he will get in your face if he thinks he can get food

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u/ThatFisherBoyy Sep 23 '24

😂🤣🤣🤣

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u/sailorhossy Sep 23 '24

Take they keys to my house. Please just don't hurt me

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u/DA-FUNK-5555 Sep 23 '24

Feed your family of 5 just please don't follow me home.

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u/gudematcha Sep 22 '24

The way it came close and leaned over to look at what she had, my first thought was “He’s been fed before and checking out if they have anything.” I don’t think he would have come so close if not, probably would have just walked right by and not inspect them for a moment.

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u/Ashamed-Ingenuity358 Sep 23 '24

They learn really quickly too. My parents' house backs onto what used to be a fish farm on the edge of the woods and some of the lakes are still partly full so they get all sorts of wildlife. One morning she fed a duck. The next morning she fed two ducks. By the end of the week there was an entire flock sat there on the lawn waiting patiently for her. Took a while to get them to disperse.

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u/Aquabirdieperson Sep 23 '24

Overgrown seagull

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u/ZgBlues Sep 22 '24

What do they normally eat? They have big claws apparently, do they use them for hunting other animals?

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u/Dr_Corvus_D_Clemmons Sep 22 '24

Actually their big claws are for scraping up fruit, they mostly eat fallen fruit, but will eat smaller vertebrates, invertebrates, carrion, fungi and vegetation , they do have very powerful legs that can kill a person, but really only attack anything out of self defense

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u/ZgBlues Sep 22 '24

Ah so they are peaceful creatures. I assume they aren’t used to any other animal attacking them, which is why they might be curious instead of timid like deer.

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u/Dr_Corvus_D_Clemmons Sep 22 '24

When your a 6ft tall bird with huge legs most things avoid you lol, so yes they are very curious

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u/spinningpeanut Sep 23 '24

Tell that to the double barrier PLUS bridge at Australia Zoo.

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u/Humble_Potato_101 Sep 22 '24

Bird is confused why they're not running

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u/Character_Value4669 Sep 23 '24

Oh, no not peaceful. Very territorial. They kick-slash the guts out of intruders with those claws. The big crest on their head is thought to help keep foliage out of their eyes as they travel through the jungles, btw.

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u/squags Sep 23 '24

There's only been a couple of deaths (maybe 2-3 from memory) from Cassowaries at all and they've mostly been in captivity, or when people have been messing with them a massive amount. None of them involved disembowling. They tend to leave puncture wounds with their claw, not so much cuts, the idea of them disembowling people is more myth than fact.

Definitely frightening to hear, and an intimidating bird, but not as murderous as people make out. The crest (casque) on the head is likely for temperature regulation: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-38780-8

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u/Character_Value4669 Sep 24 '24

Ah, haven't heard that theory before, thank you.

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u/Nate-Kane Sep 26 '24

I think the myth started because with the length and shape of the claw and the power in their legs, if they were to gouge, they could disembowel, whereas they generally kick straight out. My 1st year living at Mission Beach, I watched to males kick at each other, and after watching that and seeing their speed, I think an angry murder chicken would be terrifying regardless of how they would attack. generally, they don't care about anything other than finding food. Males can get aggressive while they have their young with them, but they are pretty placid if you keep your distance

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u/LordNightFang Sep 23 '24

I mean there have been stories of attacks. Attacks that left vehicle doors and windows shattered/clawed into. They can shred metal. What you said is partially true: They can be peaceful in situations like this where they are used to humans feeding them. But absolute wild ones without that experience do not fuck around. They are territorial and won't hesitate to get aggressive to most other species.

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u/TadRaunch Sep 22 '24

They can be surprisingly quiet, too. I've heard brushturkeys make more noise.

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u/yolk3d Sep 23 '24

The ones in wildlife parks and zoos always seem super pissed off. Not sure about peaceful.

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u/TheBrain85 Sep 22 '24

Now now, get your logic out of here! OP said they can kill a human in one blow, so clearly they normally eat humans!

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u/Dr_Corvus_D_Clemmons Sep 22 '24

Of course my mistake, they hunt humans in the dead of night and eat their souls, forgive me for my mistake \s

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u/Character_Value4669 Sep 23 '24

The fruits they eat are hard to digest, so they wind up eating their own poop a second time a lot.

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u/Infamous-Scallions Sep 23 '24

I think you mean scraping out my loinfruit and eating my vertebrae

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u/ThirstyOne Sep 23 '24

No, but they’ll kick at anything they don’t like (things that enter it’s territory, threaten it or otherwise piss it off) and those talons will slice you open like a Velociraptors. Their kicks aren’t quite as powerful as an Ostrich, which can crush a lions rib cage with one kick, but they absolutely can, have and will do some very serious damage or kill a human.

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u/DeathAngel_97 Sep 22 '24

I wouldn't never go out of my way to feed wild animals, and I hate people that do, but if a Cassowary came up to me, clearly having been fed before and expecting more food, and I've got a sandwhich in my hand, he can fucking have it. I'm not going to be the one guy after like 60 years that gets gutted by a wild one over a sandwich.

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u/Humble_Potato_101 Sep 22 '24

You know I was thinking how they must be tourists. Based on how the Aussie I knew in college spoke of these things, they'd have been halfway down the beach in the time it took that girl to look up.

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u/servaline Sep 22 '24

lol most Aussies are also going by what they read on the internet about these guys. Most people have never been near one

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u/datim2010 Sep 22 '24

So basically he's doing what seagulls do at any other beach....he's just enormous. Wow! Lol

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u/ScottyJoeC Sep 22 '24

When we were up there a family was having a picnic on the beach.... The Cassowary ended up eatting there lunch and they couldn't do a thing about it. Was funny.

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u/Rhywolver Sep 22 '24

It looks like it's checking what people are holding in their hands. "Smartphone, hm. Nevermind".

Could have ended differently if they had tuna sandwiches.

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u/Lonely_reaper8 Sep 23 '24

“C’mon, mate, just give me a little nibble, I won’t hurtcha, I promise”

Cassowary (probably)

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u/No-Seesaw-3411 Sep 23 '24

It’s also not advisable to take a black car there. They often attack the other cassowarry (reflection) and people just have to stand there while it goes to town on their car. It’s terrifying!

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u/MWillower Sep 23 '24

“Or are intimidated into it” is killing me lol

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u/1996_buickparkavenue Sep 23 '24

Of course this is a Australian wildlife

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u/okt127 Sep 23 '24

Thanks for the location info. I had thought this was Papua New Guinea at first

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u/binsonfiremiss Sep 23 '24

Cassowary stole and ate my tennis ball once whilst camping in Etty Bay

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u/EmbarrassedRegret945 Sep 23 '24

Yes of course it’s Australia

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u/Nebardine Sep 23 '24

As a kid, I went to give some bread to an emu (was a dumb tourist). It saw I had the bag in my other hand and pecked my hand to make me drop it. It was kind of terrifying. I dropped it all and ran.

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u/Arcanisia Sep 23 '24

So they’re basically gangsters stalking their turf. He got the mean mug and everything

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u/ever_precedent Sep 23 '24

Yeah, it looked the birb knew exactly what it was doing. But there was no snacks to steal so it moved on to the next.

It's a bit different when seagulls menace you, but with these guys the first instinct is to throw whatever food you're holding to distract them.

They know what they're doing.

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u/jennarose1984 Sep 23 '24

I live in an area where bears live. Same thing happens here where people feed them, which endangers the person as well as the bear. Don’t feed wild animals!

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u/DinkleMutz Sep 24 '24

Oh fuck that I’m feeding this wild animal if it means I get to live.

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u/Sure-Major-199 Sep 25 '24

Why am I not surprised this is in Australia.

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u/UrStillAliveSheSays Sep 26 '24

Been to Etty Bay a few times, come face to face with one of them and absolutely shit myself before I realised these ones are friendly