All language subtitles for BBC.Natural.World.S28E13.Cassowaries.400p.x265.i95HEVC

The tropical rainforests of
the northeastern coast of Australia

are one of the oldest
forests on Earth.

They're so extraordinary, they've
been declared a World Heritage area.

And in these forests,
there still roams an ancient

and mysterious creature.

A giant flightless bird.

The cassowary is as tall as a man,

and has dagger-like
claws and a lethal kick.

But as few as 1,500 of them
now remain in these forests.

Charismatic and bizarre,
the cassowary has a remarkable

appetite for large fruit.

Youngsters still play
in the paperbark swamps,

but urgent intervention is
needed to secure their future.

Cyclones, a regular occurrence
in this tropical climate,

are now becoming
increasingly severe.

And pressures from the human
population are increasing, too.

Australia's southern cassowary
is in trouble.

Cassowaries are related to those
other giant flightless birds that

include the ostrich and the emu.

But unlike its relatives
which live in open country,

the cassowary prefers the dense
vegetation of the rainforest.

It's the beginning
of breeding season.

A female is looking for a mate.

Her deep, low frequency calls
travel far through the forest.

A male approaches very warily.

She is bigger than he is.

And stronger.

The size of the helmet-like casque

on her head indicates her age
and dominance.

The brilliant colour of her neck

and her dangling wattles probably
act as a beacon in the forest gloom.

The submissive male
follows her majesty

several paces behind.

She will take as many as three
different mates in a season.

He displays in front of her.

She seems impressed and leads
him deeper into the forest.

The pair will spend at least
a month courting and mating.

But as soon as the eggs are laid,
the female will leave the area.

The rest of the work is left to him.

Some of the chicks developing
inside these eggs may not be his,

but even so, he will incubate
them all and rear all the chicks.

He rolls the eggs to keep them
at an even temperature.

It's a long and lonely incubation.

He'll sit here for fifty days
and fifty nights.

He feeds only very occasionally.

As a result, he will lose
up to a third of his body weight

before incubation is finished.

But so long as he stays here,
the eggs are safe.

This is the way cassowaries
have always lived.

Secure in the depths of the forest.

But the coastal towns
of Queensland are expanding

and this one,
Mission Beach, now extends right

to the very edge of a tract
of World Heritage rainforest.

And courting cassowaries sometimes
wander into town.

Local residents are delighted.

I love the cassowaries. They're
just wonderful, wonderful creatures.

We've got a very small
pond out the back

and they come to drink at that
which is why we see so many.

But in the summer time, he would
always just go and stand in it

and look like,
"this is so nice," you know?

We don't know this one.

And I think it is a female.

We know this bloke?
No.

We don't have pets.
We don't need pets.

We have cassowaries.

But danger threatens.

A cyclone is building out
in the Coral Sea.

Birds and people could be
in for a rough time.

Cyclones are common here,
but on 20th March 2006

Cyclone Larry speeds towards
the coast with unprecedented fury.

BROADCASTER: 'This morning,

'a giant weather system
is bearing down

'on the far North Queensland coast.

'Winds of 190 kilometres...

'..it is expected to cross
the coast of far north Queensland

'within two hours.'

Mission Beach and the cassowaries'
precious rainforest

are directly in the path
of a fast moving cyclone.

BROADCASTER: 'Winds of up
to 290 kilometres lashed

'the north Queensland
coast this morning

'as the category five cyclone hit.

'Authorities in Queensland still
can't estimate the full extent

'of the damage from one of the worst
cyclones ever to hit the state.'

A great swathe, 100 kilometres wide,
is cut through the forest.

The damage is so great
that it will be years before

the vegetation recovers enough
to support the birds.

In the immediate aftermath, however,

there is a glut of fruit,
blown down by the wind.

But cassowaries need up to five
kilograms of fruit a day

and soon the windfall is gone.

The birds leave the devastated
forest in search of more.

A banana plantation
might provide it.

But cassowaries are territorial,

they don't share and there's
another bird already here.

The bigger one
fiercely defends its claim.

And the smaller one,
almost inevitably, loses.

HORN BEEPS

In the three weeks
after the cyclone,

four birds are killed on the roads.

But the town is a source of food

and the starving birds
have become beggars.

Following the cyclone,
there were cassowaries everywhere.

They were quite displaced.

They were looking for food.

The forest was in a very bad state

and we had them coming up
to the house nearly every day.

My eldest son was quite distressed.

Initially, we thought it was
his experience of the cyclone,

but after after talking to
him about it more,

we realised that it was fear
of the cassowaries,

and he didn't want to play outside.

If one saw a cassowary,
they would call

"Cassowary alert! Cassowary alert!"

and everyone would run and hide
in the cubby or on the stairs

until the cassowary had passed
and things were safe.

More and more cassowaries
start to wander through the town,

and that causes problems for both
the people and the birds.

Something needs to be done.

Scott Sullivan leads a
Queensland Parks and Wildlife team

and he is called in
to deal with the problem.

I'm the man with the food, rooster.

This cassowary's really skinny.

You can see its backbone,
the ridge along its back,

and there's no food here for it.

The vet will tranquillise it
and the team will relocate it

to some undamaged forest.

Ssh.. Everyone quiet.

He's ready to rock and roll.

Got him?

That was brains over the buzzard.

It takes a while for
the sedative to work.

I might even circle
around the top end

and get around him,
then I can stand up the front end

and he might walk back
this way a bit.

Can you keep a visual on him?

He's remarkably upright.

Get me the net, quick.

They'll need some body armour too,
before they can handle the bird.

Bring it in. Bring it in.

Don't push him. Don't push him.

Where's your vests?
You'll have to jump this one.

Let him come, let him come.
Let him come.

Get on, get on.

Time for snappy decisions.
Well done.

I could kiss you.

HE LAUGHS

See the claw?

Take notice of
the size of that claw.

That's the primary
weapon of defence.

You're gonna start pushing as
far as you can

and when you're ready for the final
push and let go,

we'll drop the door.

My biggest fear was when
it got to the end of here,

we've got an open backyard
that leads out on to the main road.

And if you've got a bird
that's slightly dazed by drugs,

the last thing we want it doing is
walking out in amongst the traffic.

For the next four months,

Scott and the cassowary response
team are kept busy relocating birds.

HE WHISTLES

Come on, little birdie.

Can you guys hang back a bit,

just so we can get out
to that fenceline?

You're on, boys? Yep.

The birds are taken as far
as 80 kilometres away

to forest beyond
the cyclone-affected area.

This is good cassowary habitat

and many of the birds
can be released

straight back into the wild.

Some, however,
are injured or malnourished,

or too young to fend for themselves

and these are brought into the
Cassowary Rehabilitation Centre

at Mission Beach.

But their future must lie
back in the forest.

We're going up to get an overview

of the cassowary habitat
around Mission Beach

and to see what areas that
the cassowaries might be using.

You can really see how the rainforest
is broken up into pockets

by roads and by development.

It's understandable that the
cassowaries had such a tough time

after the cyclone.

The cassowaries literally
had nowhere to go.

Three months later,
and Scott can see

that the forest around Mission Beach
is still far from recovering.

But beyond the cyclone-damaged area
there is still healthy rainforest,

where life for the cassowaries
is continuing as normal.

Incubation has come to an end

and the patient male
has four tiny chicks to look after.

The chicks stick close to dad.
They're just two weeks old.

This is the most vulnerable time
of their lives

and they must quickly learn
all they can.

Essentially, those chicks
just model themselves off dad.

So dad mooches around
and does cassowary business

and then the babies
will start to emulate that.

It's amusing to watch a cassowary
when he's teaching his chicks,

because he might be pecking fungus
off a tree

or he might be picking up
a particular seed in the forest

and all the chicks
will gather around him

and they'll mimic
those same behaviours.

In doing so, they're getting fed
but they're also learning.

The chicks will be looked after
by the male

until they are at least
nine months old

and ready to fend for themselves.

It's the dry season

and dad must keep them moving
through his territory

in search of food and water.

Cassowaries need to drink frequently
throughout the day and will do so,

even if the waterholes
are as muddy as this one.

The chicks drink enthusiastically.

Dad, with his thick black
cloak of feathers,

is obviously feeling the heat.

The chicks seem to be rather unsure
about the water,

but with their lighter coats,
they are not over-heating.

For dad, the water may also soothe
the itch from parasites.

The chicks' colours camouflage them
very well against the leaf litter

and helps to protect them
from predators.

The family would normally
have this range to themselves.

But dad becomes aware
of the presence of another bird

and he calls the chicks to him.

This older trespasser
with the large head casque

is not just a casual visitor.

This is a giant female
and she is not to be messed with.

She's come for the food.

CASSOWARY CALLS

The smaller male
tries to avoid trouble

by making little submissive calls.

The female might well be
the mother of the chicks,

but even so, she would have had
nothing to do with them

since she laid them as eggs.

To her, the family
are just competitors

and she wants to scare them off.

CASSOWARY CALLS

The male retreats and the chicks
follow as quickly as they can.

When they are all
a safe distance away,

Dad fluffs up his feathers

to provide the youngsters
with a refuge.

CHICK CALLS

But in the hurry to escape,
one has been left behind.

CALLING CONTINUES

For a little lost chick,
the forest is full of dangers.

And night is coming on.

A large monitor lizard
is looking for a meal.

By itself, the chick has no chance.

Two months later,

and the three remaining chicks
are striding out after dad.

They're growing in confidence
as well as size.

Their legs are now longer,
but it will be some time

before they begin to look like
an adult cassowary.

One of them even plucks up the
courage to take a bath with dad.

Dad clacks his beak
to get their attention.

"This is how you find insects."

Not so long ago,
they just followed behind.

But now they can travel
further afield

and they are becoming
more inquisitive.

Dad introduces them
to the delights of fungus.

This is an important food source
for them

at times when there is
not much fruit.

Back at Mission Beach, a wounded
chick has been brought in to the vet

after being attacked by dogs.

Let's have a look at him.

All right? Yeah.

The wound was sort of pretty bad
when he first came in.

How does it look?
It looks pretty good now.

There's just the tiniest
little scar remaining.

He'll be fine in a few days' time.

He's in pretty good nick,
condition-wise.

He's quite fat, quite solid

and quite a bright
and active little guy.

Yeah, orphan chicks, it's probably
not the most uncommon reason

for receiving them.

The dogs attack the adults,

then the chicks have got no-one
to look after them.

What do you reckon?
Give him a run in the day yard?

We can let him out
into this pen here.

We're just going to have to lock him
into that big cage at night

just so that no scrub pythons
or anything can get him.

Yeah, let's let him go.
Let him go. He'll be fine.

He'll be fine out here. Fantastic.

For the next year, the rehab team
will try to give him the skills

he'll need when he's released
back into the wild.

But not all the birds are so lucky.

Apparently this cassowary

was attacked by two dogs
yesterday evening

and had numerous lacerations
and puncture wounds.

When dogs are in a pack,
they have a pack mentality

and they just try to
kill the animal.

Since the cyclone, three birds
have been killed by dogs

and another twelve hit by cars.

For Julia Conole, the autopsy
result is not surprising.

We've got a five centimetre tear on
the medial aspect of the left hind

into the muscle to the bone.

Right hind in a similar place,
massive bruising.

This is one of the worst birds
I've ever seen attacked by dogs.

There wasn't a spare centimetre
of flesh that hadn't been damaged.

And there's no way anything
could have survived those injuries.

The dogs should be put down,
because this is what...

It just shits me. People think their
dogs can just do what they want.

Because the dogs won't be hungry.

They'll just be doing it for fun.

But as Scott knows,

it's not just the cassowaries that
are at risk in this shared habitat.

It's also the people.

Do you mind if I walk along the back
and have a look at it from...

We don't mind but I don't think
the neighbours will like it much.

I'll poke my head over
the fence, if she feeds...

There's no fence. Yeah.

The locals have known Reggie
for years.

She is a big female
who lives in the forest next door.

But she's hungry
and she's becoming aggressive.

There's cases that we've heard from
this bird where it's chased people.

It chased a woman
that had a baby in a pram.

If it managed to jump up
and rake down with its feet,

those inner claws
could literally unzip a person.

If a crocodile was dangerous,
we'd remove it,

we have to do the same thing
with a cassowary as well.

Oh, it's just the way I want you.
Just follow her.

The vet actually hit the bird
right on the point of the bone

which is what bent the needle.

Hardly any of the drug
went into the bird.

Got her that time.

Tranquillising wild cassowaries
is not an exact science.

And when each bird is so precious,

vets prefer to err
on the side of caution

by using a lower dose
of anaesthetic.

The plan now is if she'll let
the drug take a little bit of effect

and if we can get her to sit down,
we'll sneak up there with the net,

throw the net over the top of her

and she's had the wind knocked
out of her enough by that stage

that we should be able to do it
without any danger to our staff.

She's feeling very woozy.

There we go. Bring the net.

She's obviously got still a fair
bit of spunk left in her and...

OK, pit tag going in.

Hang on a sec.

Righto.

And while we're relocating her,

it's a good opportunity for us
to attach a transmitter

and then see how the animal behaves
post-relocation.

We attach a microchip as well
underneath the skin,

so we can identify the animal
a little bit later on.

But this section where we
physically restrain the animal

is obviously very dangerous.

We're applying weight to the body
of the animal to keep it restrained.

The animal weighs up to 50 kilos
and we've got three gentlemen

here that are all a good 80 kilos
or better holding the animal down,

restraining its legs. These legs
are like a set of chainsaws.

So we're holding them firm
against the body.

There's that really sharp
inside claw.

If we keep that up against the body
and away from us, we should do OK.

Have we got both legs in? Yes.
We do now. Both legs in.

Big push, ready. Go!

Down, down, down, down, down.

That's the hardest capture
I've ever done.

How about you, Graham? Yeah.

The drugs laid her down
but didn't slow her down,

if that makes any sense.

I think we might have
underestimated her weight, slightly.

Female cassowaries will go up
a good 60 kilo or so.

We dosed her for what, 50 odd?
50, yeah.

But she's not as big as some of
the cassowaries we've seen so far.

She put up a fight right to the end,
and you've got to ever be aware

of those big feet being able to kick
back and do some awesome damage

to your face, your chest,
and any other part of your body.

But it was good work.

Reggie is being taken to a patch
of forest behind Mission Beach

which the team thinks
should be able to support her.

By the time they get there, she'll
have recovered from the anaesthetic.

With luck, the traumatic experience

of being captured will discourage
her from bothering people again.

The radio transmitter she's been
fitted with will allow the team

to track her over the coming months
to find out where she goes.

That's it.

Well, done.

All the relocated birds
have been radio-tagged.

Much is still unknown
about cassowaries,

so every piece of information
Scott and his team

can obtain about their movements
will help in our understanding

of the birds' behaviour
and of their needs.

BLEEPING

Seven months after the cyclone

and cassowaries are still
wandering into Mission Beach.

It's clear that the damaged forest
is not yet able to support them.

And the birds are hanging around
longer and longer,

staking out their claims
in suburbia.

Local people are concerned that the
birds are starving and so feed them.

But Parks and Wildlife are
worried that the birds might begin

to treat the town
as their main source of food

and so abandon
the forest altogether.

So the team have set up
60 feeding stations

throughout the cyclone-affected
forest to help sustain the birds

and draw them back
from human habitation.

The feed stations were really set
in place just to supplement the diet

of the cassowaries.

It was basically to give them a
top-up, keep their bellies full

and keep them in the forest
where they actually belonged,

until the forest had time to recover
enough that they could forage

just from the forest resources alone.

The time for the forest to recover

is another one that we
couldn't judge that easily.

It's a one-in-how-many-year event
that we have a cyclone

of the magnitude of Cyclone Larry.

As a result of that, it was really
just a 'suck it and see' with this

and we put the science in place
to monitor the forest and then,

as the forest began to recover

to an extent that the cassowaries
could use it,

that's when we started
to remove the feed stations.

With help from the community,

the rangers are putting out as much
as a 1,000 kilos of fruit a week.

Normally, a male wouldn't risk

bringing a chick near other large
birds but here there's no choice.

It will be many months before the
forest canopy begins to recover.

Meanwhile, there is little shade

and the birds are suffering
under the tropical sun.

The forest pools bring some relief.

Adults are surprisingly
good swimmers and will, in fact,

readily cross rivers, if necessary.

Beyond the cyclone-affected area,
the forest still provides plenty

of shade, water and fruit.

Dad and the chicks are doing well.

The youngsters are now eight months
old and have lost their stripes.

Even so,
it takes practice to get down

a whole gardenia fruit in one go.

But one of the chicks is in trouble.

While its siblings
fossick for food, it just sits.

Maybe it's just injured.

It certainly can't walk properly.

But the family has to keep moving
to find food.

They may well walk
up to seven kilometres a day.

The youngster must try to keep up.

Our knowledge of cassowaries
in the wild is still limited,

but it's estimated that less than
half of the cassowary chicks

in the coastal rainforest
reach maturity.

Next morning...

and dad has only two chicks
still with him.

He's led them out of the rainforest
and into the nearby paperbark swamp.

Cassowaries will explore all kinds
of forest in their search for food.

And they will eat
all kinds of things...

fruit and fungus, foliage, insects
and even small dead mammals.

Dad keeps watch
for the missing youngster.

He recognises a high-pitched call.

BIRD CALLS

Remarkably, the youngster who
fell behind has survived the night.

Physical contact

between adult and the chicks
seems to be very important.

Surprisingly,
Reggie has found her way back

to the very Mission Beach garden
where she was captured.

But she's lost her transmitter
and she is not in good shape.

Do you want full breakfast?
I only got continental today.

You didn't you get enough, did you?

It's not fair. Give me a kiss.

Good girl. Lovely girl, aren't you?

You're a lovely girl.
The beauty comes from within.

Hmm.

The residents, worried by Reggie's
loss of feathers, have called in

Scott and Graham the vet.

Hello, big chook.

I've got a little bit of
fruit here, too. Hello, Ken.

How're you doing? Yeah, good, good.

So any ideas in terms of what you
think's causing the feather loss?

Um, sure, yeah. The most likely
thing is actually

some sort of hormonal deficiency
or trauma

or over-preening, or these
mite parasites that they do get.

But this looks very much to be more
a systemic or a metabolic problem

rather than something simple.

Right, we're coming, we're coming.

One bit at a time.

Yeah, ready to go.
I probably got a good shot

there when
you just come back, Scott, actually.

What, over here? Yeah.

Got it all? Yep, got the lot.
You're a champ.

Absolute champ. We'll give you one
more piece for being a good girl.

So she's actually got
some feather regrowth.

She's got some feather regrowth,
but it's abnormal.

Normally as feathers come through,
they come through fully formed,

whereas these
are coming through in stumps.

We're looking for blood counts,

signs of infection. More importantly
in this bird, we want to check

hormone levels if we can. Thus the
need for a fair amount of blood,

cos there is quite a few tests
happening there.

The condition of her skin
and feathers is quite remarkable

and certainly now she's a bit
of a shadow of her former self.

Yeah, a bit further.
Just lift a bit higher.

Don't be shy to lift her up.

Yep, just watch where you are the
moment, Ken, because if she kicks,

you will absolutely wear it.

It's all right. I got her.

The strange disease
may be contagious,

so to protect other birds,

they decide to quarantine her
and run some more tests.

One week later,
and Reggie's results are back.

The tests
were a little inconclusive.

The pathologist is suspicious
of a virus called circo virus.

Like in parrots?
We're not certain at this stage.

We haven't been able to isolate
the virus.

The pathology of the skin
looks suspicious -

as if it is. But we haven't had
that confirmed as yet.

It's not a disease we've
seen in cassowaries previously,

but the possibility of being immune
suppressed following the cyclone,

having shortness of food,

weakness in the immune system would
have contributed to the...

It's made her a bit susceptible?
For sure. That's why we'd like to

certainly keep her in quarantine,
because there's the potential

that it could be spread to other
cassowaries in the area.

Because cassowary numbers are so
low, every single bird matters

and Reggie
will have to undergo more tests.

A year after the cyclone,
the forest is at last recovering

and cassowaries are playing an
important part in its regeneration.

Birds use trees.

But trees also use birds.

And for some trees, only a very
large bird is up to the task.

Studying the cassowaries' role
is ecologist, Dr David Westcott.

The forest is looking good.

There's lots of recovery now and
cassowaries are contributing to that

by their passed seed dispersal.

Like most of us, cassowaries are
really enthusiastic about eating,

and this is the result
of all of that eating.

A beautiful pile of bits and pieces,
a range of different species.

The thing that cassowaries do
that is different

to most of the other animals in here
is that they can disperse

large seeded fruits and they can do
that in very large quantities.

The other species can move large
seeds, but they usually do it

one or two at a time. Cassowaries
can do dozens, hundreds maybe.

Over the coming weeks and months,
these seeds will germinate,

and what we'll end up with
is a little clump of seedlings.

So as the fruit
goes through the cassowary,

it scrapes off cells from the inside
of a cassowary's stomach lining

and those cells are passed out
in the dung,

and what we're trying to do is to use
the DNA that those cells contain

to be able to genetically fingerprint
the individuals.

Then we can actually estimate

the number of individuals that there
are in a given area

and that's one of the key pieces
of information that you need

to manage an endangered species -

an estimate of how many animals
are actually there.

The latest calculation suggests
that there are only

about 1,500 cassowaries remaining
in the whole of Australia.

Their survival depends
on the existence of healthy

and continuous rainforests.

But the birds here
must constantly cross roads

to get from one fragment of forest

to the next.

Much of the coastal rainforest
had already been cleared

before the World Heritage boundaries
were drawn, and unprotected forest

is still being felled
to make way for human developments.

In Australia, the southern cassowary
is only to be found

along the northeastern Queensland
coast.

But all the surviving forests,

protected or unprotected, are now
under threat from climate change.

Research
is more necessary than ever.

Four giant cranes

located in tropical rainforests
around the world

are enabling ecologists to study
the forest from floor to canopy.

By rotating the 50 metre
jib through 360 degrees,

they can monitor an entire
hectare of forest in minute detail.

Other scientists are examining
the rich leaf litter on the ground

to build up a picture
of how the rainforest functions

and just how diverse it is.

Changes in the behaviour
of leaf-eating insects

may give an early warning of how the
forest is responding to the stress

of climate change.

Climatologists

are now predicting longer drier
dry seasons and severe cyclones.

Whatever damages the rainforest,

will inevitably have an
effect on the cassowaries.

If the forest disappears,
so will they.

Dad's teenagers are now much more
adventurous and leave him for hours

at a time, to play what appears to
be their version of hide and seek.

But life is not all games.

The youngsters don't know it,
but their lives are about to change.

The big female is back.

LOW ROLLING CALL

But it's not their food
she wants this time.

It's their dad that she's after.

He knows what she wants.

But before she will mate with him,
there's something he has to do.

He must get rid of the kids.

It's not easy to persuade them
to go.

They have been dependent on him
from the time they were hatched.

One way is to chase them off.

Another way is to lead them
into the bush

and then slip away,
hoping that they won't notice.

SCREECHING CALL

Now they are on their own.

The Rehabilitation Centre
is still busy.

Since Cyclone Larry, 15 birds
of all ages have been brought in.

Come on.

Come on.

Orphans spend a few months longer
here than they would with a male

in the wild. It takes longer
for them to learn from humans.

Come on, come on.

They love the pawpaw.

We've had these young birds
in the compound here

for about 13 months,
and that's round about the time

that the parents actually,

or the dad, kicks them out, so they
have to go and fend for themselves.

And, um, as of this Wednesday,
we're releasing three smaller ones.

Yeah, each individual bird's
got their own personality.

Um, yeah,
I'm certainly going to miss them.

Just stand on the mound,
just behind Morris.

The surrogate dads, too,

must help the young cassowaries
become independent.

No, no, whoo, whoo, whoo.
Everybody stop.

He's coming in behind you guys.

He's done it again.

THEY CHUCKLE

Beautiful net.

That's it.

Watch the angle of the bird.

One, two, three.

Well done.

This is what makes all the work
of rescue and rehabilitation

since the cyclone, worthwhile -

putting individual cassowaries
back into the wild.

These are the lucky ones.

But will rescuing a few birds
at a time be enough?

The birds of Mission Beach
need more than one-on-one help.

They urgently need
their fragmented forests

to be connected by wildlife
corridors where they can live

without human interference.

It's the wet season again.

It will bring life-giving rains
or perhaps another cyclone.

The young siblings
we have been following

are now emerging as individuals.

But they have yet to develop
the full adult regalia of casques,

wattles and brilliant necks.

It will take another three years
for them to reach sexual maturity.

They have spent nearly ten months
together as brothers and sisters

but that is now coming to an end.

There's time for one last game.

But the playful rivalry
now takes on a new edge.

They must separate
and find territories of their own.

But how many of them will survive?

And will there be enough rainforest
to shelter future generations?

The remarkable cassowary that has
had such a long and ancient past

is today
walking into an uncertain future.