Is the buzzard really the most dangerous bird in the world?

Standing five and a half meters tall, sprinting at up to 31 miles per hour and leaping up to seven feet off the ground, the lodgers are the stuff of legend. They are the third largest bird in the world, weighing up to 175 pounds, with sharp claws that grow up to five inches long. Their powerful kick, which defends them from predators, can break bones, damage internal organs and even be lethal.

“These birds look like an intimidating cross between a velociraptor, an emu and a giant turkey,” says children’s book author Beverley McWilliams, who wrote the book. Father stay.

The two recorded human deaths linked to this creature earned it the title of “world’s most dangerous bird” in the Guinness Book of World Records.

But scientists say these amazing birds are misunderstood, and the focus on their potential to be aggressive overshadows how important they are to science, history and ecosystems.

First, cassowaries, like most modern birds, are direct descendants of theropod dinosaurs. The helmet-like helmet on a cazar’s head is one of its most dinosaur-like features. Observing these birds can act as a time machine, helping paleontologists imagine how extinct dinosaurs might have behaved, says Todd Green, a paleontologist at the New York Institute of Technology.

The majestic cassowary has long been important to indigenous communities, found in artifacts up to nine thousand years old. And these birds keep their entire forest ecosystem in Oceania functioning by dispersing seeds.

Cassowaries are not naturally aggressive, experts say, no matter how fearsome their anatomy might make them appear.

Here’s how cassowaries got such a bad reputation, and why conservationists are worried it could hurt the future of the species.

How well married people got a bad rap

Allen Sheather of Rainforest Rescue’s Cassowary Recovery Team has had plenty of run-ins with cassowaries, and after more than 30 years of working with the huge birds, he thinks we’ve got them all wrong.

A lodger once approached Sheather while he was squatting, working at his home in Australia. “I only noticed her when her feet were directly in front of me,” Sheather recounts. “It’s pretty disheartening to see a lodger looking up from down below.”

But the bird just looked at him, took some fruit next to him and left. They are very curious birds, says Sheather, which can be misinterpreted as aggression. During World War II, American and Australian troops stationed in New Guinea were warned to beware of the large birds.

So why did these curious birds come to be called the most dangerous in the world?

Cassowaries have killed two people in recorded history: an Australian teenager was killed in 1926 after hitting a cassowary with a bat, and a Florida man was killed in 2019 by a cassowary he kept in captivity, drawing world attention to the formidable birds.

A study of 150 reported horsefly attacks on humans in Queensland, Australia, found in most cases the birds attacked while defending food, their young or eggs, or when perched. In 75% of cases, people have previously fed the birds. “These lodges associate people with food, and this can change their naturally shy behavior,” McWilliams explains, “resulting in them chasing people and cars or approaching houses in anticipation of being fed.”

Crocodiles kill about a thousand people a year, and hippos kill about 500 people a year, compared to the two deaths recorded by lodgers in 1926. “They have the equipment to do a lot of damage,” says Green, “but if you respect them and respect their space, it’s very unlikely to be a problem.”

In fact, these birds also have a unique family dynamic, as fathers are often involved in raising the offspring. The relationship between male Khazars and their cubs inspired McWilliams’ children’s book Father stay. Among these birds, the father is the one who incubates the eggs and is often the only parent who cares for the young. McWilliams explains that while the eggs are incubating, the father will barely leave the nest, and after hatching, he spends up to 18 months with the chicks. “Cassowaries are protective and proactive fathers,” says McWilliams. “They are undoubtedly nature’s most devoted fathers.”

Cassowaries as heroes of their ecosystems

Cassowaries weren’t always so maligned. Their otherworldly presence is widely featured in mythology from New Guinea’s indigenous groups, often as the hero of the story. As birds that walk on two legs rather than fly, they are depicted as creatures halfway between the human and animal worlds: in a creation myth, cassowaries even became the world’s first humans. The cassowary features in traditional songs and ceremonies and was a prized source of meat, bones and feathers for ritual ornaments.

In addition to their cultural significance, cassowaries are also vital to rainforest ecosystems. They are considered a keystone species, eating fruits whole and spreading the seeds in their droppings over long distances, encouraging new plants to grow in their path.

(Why some animals are more important to ecosystems than others.)

Some plants practically rely on birds for fertilization. Ryparosa kurrangiia rare tree in Queensland’s tropical rainforests, it has a symbiotic relationship with cassowaries, sprouting only about four percent of the time when planted without the bird’s help. However, when the seeds first passed through the gut of a cassava, they germinated 92 percent of the time, allowing this tree to survive.

Cassowaries also give researchers a glimpse into the Mesozoic Era. Cassowaries serve as living models for dinosaur characteristics, providing paleontologists with clues about dinosaur senses, feather structure, and mobility.

Conservation and coexistence

Despite their image, humans pose a greater threat to the cassowary than to us. Southern cassowaries are now endangered in Australia, with fewer than 5,000 left in the wild, threatened by habitat loss, being hit by cars and dog attacks. Because the czar is slow to reach breeding age and can live up to 50 years, each czar lost has a major impact on the population.

“Portraying the czar as simply dangerous and aggressive is unfair and potentially harmful to an animal that needs our protection,” says McWilliams.

The Queensland Government has implemented better road signage to avoid collisions with accidents and education programs for dog owners. Meanwhile, nonprofits like Rainforest Rescue are working to restore and reconnect patches of rainforest to improve habitat.

(Read how this bird plays a central role in shaping the rainforest.)

“One thing I’m particularly proud of is that through the work of the cassowary recovery team we’ve been able to stabilize the existing population,” says Sheather. Other Australian environmental groups such as the Community for Coastal and Cassowary Conservation and Kuranda Conservation focus on local education, land restoration such as tree planting and rehabilitation of injured cassowary.

You might be intimidated to come face to face with one of these impressive birds, but their conservation is crucial – and they command respect. Although Green has spent years in the presence of lodgers in captivity and in the wild, he says their curiosity, intelligence and striking presence never gets old.

“It’s something I’ll never get used to and never stop appreciating,” Green says. “These birds are just absolutely magnificent.”