October 10, 2025 • 32 mins
World Cassowary Day is September 26th, so hosts Rick and Marco are headed to the cassowary habitat area in the San Diego Zoo Safari Park to learn more about these incredible flightless birds. Today they’re speaking with Wildlife Care Specialist Anna Caranahan about their unique feathers, their large green eggs, and the benefits of their casques.
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Ruby.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Hi, I'm Rick Schwartz.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
What does the world Marco went?
Speaker 3 (00:13):
And this This is Amazing Wildlife. It's a podcast where
we explore unique stories of wildlife from around the world
and uncover fascinating animal facts. And this podcast is in
production with iHeartRadio's Ruby Studio and San Diego Zoo Wildlife
Alliance in international nonprofit conservation organization which oversees the San
Diego Zoo. And this amazing place, the San Diego Zoo
Safari Park.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
That was my castaway as Dracula.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Translating a rare species.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
I think this location is probably your most favorite at
this point.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
I mean, friend, I am trying not to get so excited.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
I think the shot, they can probably see it behind you,
so do you guys? Look Nyony.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
For those of you who visually know what's going on,
we're at the walk About Australia behind the castaway right now.
So these are Yara.
Speaker 4 (01:01):
And Maka And I'm super sick because this episode, Buddy,
I can't even focus.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
I know now because this is going to air during
world cast.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Come out a little bit beforehand, yes, but this is
really a great opportunity for us to shine the spotlight
on what I even considered one of the more unique
species of bird that I have ever come across. And
when I first saw them, I thought, wow, these are
really unique.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
This is cool.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
But then we started to learn more about them. For
the anual Planet series that we filmed here a couple
of years back, we got to spend time with them
and I was like mind blown. So again, yes, for
anyone watching, you can see the cast Whorris behind us.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
We're at the cast were a habitat area.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
For those of you that are listening, when you come
to this flypark, come to walk about us. Like Marco said,
this is sort of in the top back area behind
what looks.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Like the woolshed. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Yeah, you gotta go through it right and you see
it and you come.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Out the other side, and it's kind of this beautiful
little corner of this flypark that again they do such
a great job here where Yeah, we are in the
middle of southern California. We are in wow life habitat
that is inland from the ocean, so it's a bit
dry and almost desert like. Yeah, but when you come
here to the Fari Park, you come through walk about Australia,
you forget you're in southern California.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Oh, I know, man, it's such a vibe here too.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
And you know, back in the day, this was an
area that was managing and to your point, this for me,
it's just magic.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
You have the world gardens or fightstrees above us.
Speaker 4 (02:19):
But now you know, I had to pass on the
baton because I got to get an awesome roles of
spokesperson just like you a Migel. And so we have
a wonderful, very passionate human being that is managing these
wonderful dinosaur birds.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Right, So let's talk about why.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Did you introduce yourself to our guests and our audience.
Tell us your name and what's your title here.
Speaker 5 (02:37):
My name is Anna, Hi everyone, and I'm a senior
zoo keeper here at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park.
And yes, I do manage the castowaries. I've been with
them for about five years, about in twenty twenty is
when I took over from Marco, and it's just been
really amazing working with these guys.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
So you're staying around twenty twenty, things improved.
Speaker 4 (02:58):
Here, hold on, hold on, don't want to pull out
my castiwary talent.
Speaker 5 (03:06):
Absolutely amazing and he really worked well with them, so
easy to take over from him because they just start
such great birds, and he had it all ready to go,
and it was just a turnkey situation.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
You know, Anna's being really humble because she's remarkable.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
You know what I love about the bird department is
we have so many different skill sets every department really
with wildlife. But when I came in, it was more
behavior oriented. Was my experiences, and and and many others
on the team showed me a lot, especially about reproduction
and nesting and just maintaining wonderful habitat.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
So props to you and for doing amazing work.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
Speaking of wonderful habitat, one of the things that again
we had mentioned kind of an intro. We're in this
beautiful like transformed area of Australia, but it is wooded,
it is dense forest. Can you tell us a little
bit about cashworry habitat in the wild.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Where are they usually found?
Speaker 3 (03:58):
Obviously we mentioned walking about Australia, so down under book,
maybe tell us a little bit about where they can
be found in the wild.
Speaker 5 (04:04):
They can be found in New Guinea and northeast Australia,
so like the Queensland area. So it's generally a rainforest area.
They do prefer like old growth rainforests, so as you
can see the trees behind us for people who can see,
we've got these huge Ficus trees on our fighters trees.
We do have misters so when it gets warm, we
can increase the humidity with the misters and the birds
(04:27):
really love that. They are very much water creatures, so
we do have pools and wallows, and we do have
a new feature where we can take a stream and
fill up the wallow from the pool and they can
play in that in the afternoon pretty easily. So it's
a nice fun enrichment.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
I really love that you mentioned their water creature is right,
because everyone forgets like.
Speaker 5 (04:49):
Rat such good swimmer, exactly.
Speaker 4 (04:51):
Right, and just being that group of birds and rat
tites we talked about, right, like Ostrich from Africa Kiwis
you know we help with Kiwi conservation here as well.
From New ze We have one of my favorites is
Zara from South America. But these guys, to your point
you said, Northeastern Australia and New Guinea, but this force
air is really really unique and especially what they eat, right,
Can you talk a little bit about what is this particular?
Speaker 2 (05:14):
You see this big bird, right, so a giant claw.
This is god.
Speaker 6 (05:18):
This is like someone's going to kill the animals, right,
I'm assuming, right.
Speaker 4 (05:23):
Yeah, yeah, they well those eyes went way up, Amanda,
you're behind the see do you see those eyes grow
up in her head?
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Yeah? I saw that.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (05:31):
They're very very ferocious. They're very predatory. No, I'm just kidding.
They love fruits. They love to scavenge around for fallen fruit,
so anything that falls off the trees is fair game.
They do have a big, long, four and a half
inch claw. They kind of use that as a rig
to look through the leaf litter for yummy snacks.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
I'm glad he pointed out the main purpose for that, right,
I mean, because I know you and I have both
seen it. But every now and again, if guests spend
some time here, you'll see the cast wearris and it
kind of reminds me of like a jaguar or a
leopard and a tea jungle area where they're watching their
step in a heavy force area. There's roots, there's leaves
and twigs, and to your point in that, you see
them doing it sort of like a raking behavior. When
they're going around right and early you mentioned, you know,
(06:10):
the joke about being a big scary bird. I always
kind of tell people like folks, folks who are listening
right now. If you're listening, you got a smartphone, If
you look up Cassawery, you're gonna hear or see something
like World's most.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Dangerous Bird, right.
Speaker 4 (06:22):
And the Internet it's sensationalizes things quite a bit. But
I have but back me up, Anna, I mean I
tell guests like, you know, it's kind of like a rhino,
you guys, I mean, we all know not to upset
a rhino for a very obvious reason. And I would
say the same thing about a castwhery, right. They have
the potential for defending themselves. And in this intent, it's
a bird. A female over six actually can talk about that.
The size alone, right of this.
Speaker 5 (06:43):
Bird, Well, the females are about five six and they
weigh about one hundred and fifty ish pounds, whereas the
males are about five to two and they weigh about
one hundred and twenty five pounds. The males are a
little more relaxed and chill. The girls have a little
bit of a spicier added a.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Little sauce or the females saying they're more.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
So when it comes to behavior.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
If you have very specific difference as far as the
females are a little more spicy, maybe a little more
territorial aggressive, males a little more laid back. Is there
a reason we have seen why that might be for
survival or is it has to do with different roles
they play for the species?
Speaker 5 (07:23):
Good questions, very good question. The females are the ones
who will meet up with the males and they hang
out for two to three weeks, They lay three to
five eggs for the male, and then they leave. The
male is actually responsible for incubating those eggs for fifty
to fifty five days, raising those babies for about a year.
(07:45):
So they're more chill, they're more tolerant. The females they kind.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Of get to do well. They kind of manage a.
Speaker 5 (07:53):
Larger territory, whereas the males. Two or three males will
be within one female. It's almost like a ver.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
We're expecting to see animal world is.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
Where it's the male has one territory, he wanders amongst
the females.
Speaker 5 (08:07):
This is flipped well, and that seems to be kind
of the way it is in the family that kind
of breaks off before flighted. You see that in Kiwi's
and ostrich and email also, and then it's more than
males that take on that parental role.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
And back to the rat tite concept you're saying, the
ostriches are is a kiwis castworries. Well, I love him
so much.
Speaker 4 (08:26):
They're finding a dinosaurs anathona you know, you know, being
such a big bird. But also to your points, you
know the gender reversal, I absolutely love because think everyone
listening like Australia, think New Guinea, New Zealand. These are
islands that have really evolved to have really unique wildlife, right,
and so you see birds yeah, exactly, not the size
of a female, bigger, I mean to your point, And
(08:47):
it's the female right with the large territory, with the males.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
She's dropped on those eggs and she's out. And it's
the dad.
Speaker 4 (08:53):
When I think of Father's Day, I think of castle
like a macha rating Indiana right now?
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Are male?
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Right? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (09:00):
He everyone for listening.
Speaker 4 (09:01):
The mail sits on the eggs for like fifty four
days straight and raises the babies for up to a year.
So if mom and daddy driving right now, Mom gives
some eyes to do that to your hobby and remind
them about the castary rolls, right and.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
High five to the single dad.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
Job all right, yeah, hi first job. Yeah right, that's great.
And you brought some props today that we can highlight
because it's so hard to describe the castory, but can
you start describing it? And I'm gonna pull some of
these bio facts that we have here visually and we
can go through them.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Is that pork for you?
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Yeah, Well makes it so unique and paid to Like
an Ostrich as an.
Speaker 5 (09:34):
Example, Well, they're really really spectacular in their bright blue
coloring on their neck and then they have these two
little wattles that are bright red, so that's a big contrast.
And since their whole body is covered in feathers except
their head really and it's just these big, long black feathers.
It almost looks like a horse's mane. The feathers are
(09:55):
just real thick.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
I'm gonna grab him because you brought some rick. Let
me show you here so.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
Anybody who listening and not watching, The feathers aren't wide
like you see with regular birds, like no pigeon, chicken, hawk, whatever,
like you said.
Speaker 5 (10:08):
They mostly look like a piece of hair, but then
little tiny hairs off of the edge of it. And
the reason that castowaries have feathers, it's a dual feather.
There's two feather veins, and then it's got the little
tiny little feathers off the sides of it. And it's
to trap more air because it's really hot and humid
(10:29):
and it's hard for them to thermal regulate, so it
really helps trap more air. Creature is the most insulating thing,
so it really gives them this like nice little air
pocket around them. The other thing that it helps with
is they are running through the rainforest. They can run
to thirty one miles an hour, so there is lots
of broken sticks and branches and such, so it kind
(10:49):
of gives them a little layer of bubble wrap around
their belly.
Speaker 4 (10:57):
I bring up usually for a raincoat, you know, but
never thought that as well, you know, for insulation and anana.
You brought these two little things here, so let's describe it, right.
For thinking, the castaway, you look at this big feathered bird,
and on the sides, the wings actually are really really small, right,
These are flightless birds, rat tights I were talking about.
Speaker 5 (11:13):
Yeah, they're flightless, so ostrich can take their wings and
kind of move them around and dance a little bit.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Oh right.
Speaker 5 (11:18):
Cassowaries don't even have that ability. They don't have the
musculature the tendence to even do that, So their wings
just kind of hang down by their sides and they're
just a little bit above their leg right against their body.
You'll see it almost looks like little black pencils or
little black chopsticks.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Oh yeah, right now, yeah, acts that's a good point.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
Yeah, like little black chopsticks.
Speaker 4 (11:39):
Or if people a little more feather orange or aware,
or when a feather's just growing out, the little like
casing around it kind of looks like that, like a premature.
Speaker 5 (11:46):
Feather, and they're like, you know, they can be as
long as like twelve inches long. Yeah, and some of
them are shorter, but they do molt out every single year,
just like their feathers. So I do find them around
the exhibit.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
You mentioned, and that the bodies feathers. Marco's saying that
they're like a raincoat. They're a bubble wraptor installation. Why
do we have dangly chopsticks off the wing.
Speaker 4 (12:09):
I asked the same question I've wondered about, and I
don't know if you've experienced this Anna once before.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
So we have four castwarris here at the Safari Park, two.
Speaker 4 (12:16):
That our guests can experience and walk about, and we
have two others in our bird conservation center where they're
focused on helping with population.
Speaker 5 (12:22):
Right.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
So Kaya, she's the big female.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Reputation personality.
Speaker 4 (12:31):
But what I was going to say when I first
was introduced to Kaya again, you know, some animals communicat
in different ways. So she wanted to show me she's
a big bird, and I needed to watch myself, you know,
which I totally respect. So what she did is actually
came towards me, facing me, and she flared out those
things to me. And that was the only time, you too,
that I've ever seen any use of those casings, you know,
(12:53):
the rudimentary feathers. Was that to present more of a
threatening position to make sure that I knew and it
worked back the way we were intimidated.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
I mean, we're making Jack.
Speaker 4 (13:04):
So I also want to point out what makes your
job so unique, I think, and props to all the
work that you do with these animals, and that It's
also a term that we use here into world called
protected contact.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Right. So for instance, we're not.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
Going to go in with maybe an animal like an
elephant or a jaguire, right, or a tiger, And we
want to do that with a castory as well.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
We have good relationship with these birds, but right we're
not going to be going in.
Speaker 5 (13:25):
No, there is no reason to go in with the cassuary.
I mean, their first line of defense is always to run.
But why would we want to scare them, you know?
And why would we want to The only time they're
going to use that claw in a dangerous manner is
if they feel cornered and nervous or scared. So I
don't want to put them in that position. I don't
want to put myself in that position. My kids would
(13:46):
not appreciate it. But they are very well trained. They
know how to shift. We can move them from exhibit
to exhibit, we can put them in the barn for
a few minutes. They do go into crates if we
do need to transfer them somewhere else, So there's no
need for us to necessarily get in the same space
with them. Even when they're being vaccinated. We do have
(14:08):
our vet staff come out and they see our vet
staff at least once a month, if not more, and
we practice giving their injections and doing a fake exam
so that when it comes to the real time to
do it, they're not worried. It's a no big deal.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Yeah, I see, it's great voluntary inoculations.
Speaker 4 (14:25):
But it's one of many aspects for the health of
the animals under our care right to do these amazing things.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
So I absolutely love that.
Speaker 4 (14:31):
And you know, we got distracted with other attributes of Castworry,
but I wanted to say, because we were describing the feathers,
can you also talk about the foot because you brought
a really cool mold of the foot of a.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Kind of a couple times.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
But yeah, it's bigger than my hand, you guys.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
So it's so for those of you are listening, he's holding.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
Up a casting of a castworry footprint and yeah, definitely
bigger than a human hand, right, pretty.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Big, right, Yeah.
Speaker 5 (14:55):
So she has a really big, giant middle toe and
then there's two toe on either side, and that inside
toe is the one that's got the four and a
half inch long nail. We weren't able to get a
good cast of the toenail because it really doesn't touch
down on the ground. But her right, Yeah, good print
looks exactly like a dinos and.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
People always bring that up.
Speaker 4 (15:18):
And yeah, I tell people because again, like it started
with the dinosaurs as a kid, and when they look
at a castilorry, how can you not think of the dinosaur.
There is one called an oliver raptor, which is a
dinosaur that eight eggs. It looks remarkably similar to this animal.
Now we're not saying there's scientific evidence of a dinosaur
linked to a castawary, but there's a lot of good
opinion and some evidence it shows that hers are modern.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
I think if you look at the skeletule structure of
what we've seen in fossils, you look at the skeletal
structure of the castwerry.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
If nothing else, the castwerry allows us to imagine how
dinosaurs would move. Oh, exactly, look right, just on a
much larger scale, totally.
Speaker 4 (15:53):
I mean everything about it, even including the eggs, right,
And can you describe to our listeners, Will I grab
this object here that you've brought, what does it look like?
Speaker 5 (16:02):
The egg is a big green egg. It's almost like
a lime green It's almost about the size of a
very large avocado or a mango, but it's a really
bright green color. And you would think that that green
color would stand out like a sore thumb in them
in all the rainforest, but with all the different greens
and stuff, it just totally blends in and is totally camouflaged.
Speaker 4 (16:24):
I know.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
I love that.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
Yeah, and again, for those that are only listening and
not watching Marco's God in his Lap now a makeshift
nest with three eggs, they are I think mangoes are good.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
I want to point out right, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
But yeah, they're bout the size of a mango, but
the coloration almost remind me of a not quite right watermelon.
Colors in the sense to speckled, are not striped, but
in the sense of the coloration of those shades of green,
and absolutely sitting out here with us right now is like, well,
those are quite obvious, but yeah, perfect camouflage in the wild,
like we see a lot of the bright parrots sometimes
(16:55):
blend in perfectly into the trees because those colorations break
up very well in the sunlight and everything else. So
do we know why they're I mean, obviously we just
said they're camouflage, but is there a particular mineral in
their body or what isn't that makes it green?
Speaker 1 (17:07):
To me, it's more of the being a forest bird.
Speaker 4 (17:09):
So I think of an animal like a tinumu, remember Anna,
like that beautiful green egg that a tinamu has, very similar,
but they're both terrestrial or ground dwelling animals, so it
has to do with that. I think it's more camouflage,
right and can when I think about a tinumu egg
as well, which I know Ron is.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
Also part of the team here in Australia.
Speaker 4 (17:26):
He has a really cool fact that the tinumu is
actually the living descendant of the Tyrannosaurus racks.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Just want to point that out too as well.
Speaker 4 (17:33):
So even the smallest little word right, all right, Ron,
you're being called out here, you know the.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Show Who do you Think you are?
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Like?
Speaker 2 (17:39):
I'd love to see that interview, right, little.
Speaker 4 (17:43):
Quail looking thing, you know I identify as a t rex? No,
But my brain's buzzing because there's so much to talk
about these birds. But the one that I absolutely love
for Meana and Rick, it's that they're forest twellers to
neither forest guardians. You talked about it a bit already
being a frugal or an animal that eats a lot
of fruit out there in the wilds and the forest
where they're from, right, Yeah, and.
Speaker 5 (18:04):
Then one really cool thing about that is they are
really good at seed dispersal. Yes, So in areas where
there are cassowaries, the species diversity goes up by twenty
five percent. Yeah, so it's really important that we have
castawerries out there to keep that biodiversity.
Speaker 4 (18:20):
Yeah, giving to point those old growth forests, and I
had read it's over thirty different species of endangered trees
that grow best when they go through the gut of
a cassowerry. I mean, the intestines are so short that
fruit like a whole mango, which they can consume, one
of the only animals in that area that can swallow
a whole mango down.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
And then because it's a short digestive track, it doesn't
really absorb all the material, all the meat of the fruit.
Speaker 4 (18:42):
So when they defecate, when they go poop, you know,
they're putting out a big old thing, maybe a mango
seed or a pie seed, depending on the fruit. And
I had to talk about my favorite poop the other
day and guess what I talked about.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
It's what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
Yeah, you can tease me. All you want to listen
is with my thing. I'm sure you do it too.
Speaker 4 (19:01):
And in the morning, you know, you have to check
out where the animals have been moving around in their activity.
And I would love to inspect the castlory poop every
day because it looks so cool, right, can use.
Speaker 5 (19:10):
Big chunks of stood in it. I mean you'll see
like a whole quarter of an apple, a bit of
a pair. You know, you can definitely recognize what types that.
You can see pieces of honeydew melon. In the wild,
they do have a fruit called the castawary plum, which
is very, very toxic. The only species that eats it
is the castawary. Because their digestive track is so short,
(19:32):
it's not really toxic to them. Isn't that insane?
Speaker 3 (19:35):
And I think initially, I mean we kind of talked
about their seed dispersive, so it gives the answer. But
I think initially someone who would hear that, oh, food
comes out only half digested at most, what's the point
of that. But they can glean the energy they need
from it, and then the forest benefits tremendously because they're
basically pooping out fertilizer with the seeds and giving the
seeds the nutrients they need then to sprout and grow.
(19:56):
The connection between animals and plants.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
And you know, just like in general, is so so amazing.
Sometimes it really is.
Speaker 5 (20:03):
And sometimes the feces will grow like a white fuzz
to it. Sometimes it's an iridescent blue. Wow, it's so interesting,
like the next morning.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Rainbow.
Speaker 5 (20:17):
It just looks different at different times of the year.
I think in the winter we see more of a
blue tint to the poop. So I don't know what
kind of a fungus yeah is growing on it, but
it's just interesting to see how it changes.
Speaker 4 (20:30):
It's all those nuances of being a forest animal, right right,
not only nesting, trying to track the mate can be difficult.
I mean you mentioned the female's dominant one with a
bunch of males in her territory, but you know they
got to find each other, right.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
Can you talk about what makes a cassiary vocal?
Speaker 2 (20:46):
These birds are huge, These birds are big. How can
you not see each other? A forest?
Speaker 4 (20:50):
I mean it's a thick rainforest, friend, you know, I
mean I've been in places where a lot of people
and I have trouble seeing my husband.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
And actually, I'm going to admit something right now.
Speaker 4 (20:57):
I use a peacock hall because, for instance, will make
the only places where he gets very excited. He's kind
of a labrador runs off, you know, he knows. I
mean that's in a good way. He's very loving and
I love him very much. But when he gets excited,
I do a call, a bird call to get his attention,
you know, because he knows that call is me, and
it works.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
Oh, I feel like you are basically doing what castiworries
do to find each other. Maybe maybe maybe might be
a little more primitive.
Speaker 4 (21:19):
You know.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
How do castaworries find each other? Even though they're big
birds and they cannot be seen in the forest.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
They can't see girl because it's a dense forest far
And I mean, I will admit I'm surprised. A bird
that's weighing over one hundred pounds is extremely quiet too.
It's amazing how quiet they are, even walking in the
leaf litter. So Anna, how do they find each other
in the forest.
Speaker 5 (21:39):
Well, they do make these low booming noises. And when
Maka and Yard do it in the barn. I can
actually feel it in my chest before I hear it,
and then it kind of subsides again and then I
can't hear it, but I can still feel it.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
So it's a sub sonic sound, so it's so low.
Speaker 5 (21:57):
You can't hear it, but then it's a boom. Marco,
would you like to do the bar?
Speaker 4 (22:00):
I mean, I'm not there get at it, but I'm
gonna track. It's kind of like that, all right, sound care?
Speaker 1 (22:04):
Here we go. It's like a but it's like very
white deep. It's like very white could go even ten
times for those of you who knew very white is
do any of you back then looking at your face?
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Cheese?
Speaker 1 (22:15):
No, I'm calling it the young one out. But anyway,
the call, it's so deep.
Speaker 4 (22:19):
It's the deepest vocal of any bird on the planet,
and it's wicked. It reminds me of elephants, is anything
same thing? They have a really low for you, Yeah,
and it travels for them across savannahs. But to your point,
Anna and Ricka the ecosystem.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
For a castworry. Their calls gotta go way.
Speaker 5 (22:34):
Out there right, definitely, And so both of them will
call to each other and so they'll do basically like
an echolocation type of situation the lower frequencies. So that's
how they do find each other.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Oh sorry, I got distrack in my head and thought
like I went like the cassary, like the castaway.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
Can you hear me? They're singing through the bars of
the bird world.
Speaker 5 (22:57):
Well, one thing that really does help the cast to
where carry that low frequency sound further is the cask
on their head. It's like a little helmet.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
I was going to say, we talked about the little
stubby wings. There's a lot of similarities that they have
with others in their families. So this is an ostrich emu,
but this is unique.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Yeah, we're holding a replica everyone who are not watching.
Speaker 4 (23:18):
Eventually all this is going to be on YouTube our
YouTube channel by the way, But yeah, we have a replica.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
And can you describe this thing? What's on top of
the head?
Speaker 5 (23:24):
Well, first of all, it's plastic. Nobody get worried. It's
not real, I promise. So underneath this helmet or cask
is a spongy material and then it's basically fingernail material
over the top.
Speaker 4 (23:39):
Basically, if you're listening on touching nails oh yeah, let
me do it here holding them out there, we go.
Speaker 5 (23:49):
Yeah, hollow, it's hollow, So that helps act to amplify
those low booming noises. The other thing that this cast
does which is really really helpful is when they're running
and they can run up to thirty one miles an
hour through the four Yeah, sure, in a dense rainfores,
what they do is they stick their head down really
low and then they push through the rainforest. It acts
almost like a little makeshift machety for that.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:10):
And so for those that aren't watching that are only
listening a couple of times, it is kind of like
a helmet, but it's more of a fin shape, almost
like a dorsal fin.
Speaker 5 (24:16):
Yeah, like a dorsal fin. And the males is thin
at the top, okay, and the females is really wide.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
We had mentioned that this is to help amplify the
sound helps coming through the forest. Do they use it
to defend themselves when fighting?
Speaker 4 (24:29):
Is it strictly the feet like you know, I've also
read that there are studies of blood being circulated through
this material, So actually you go help in thermal regulation
a thermori.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
It's like the ears of an elephant.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
I'm just gonna say the exact same thing.
Speaker 4 (24:39):
Yeah, so maybe on a colder day, the castlory will
constrict the vessels up above, so we restrict the movement
of the blood into the cast. They don't keep the
blood nice and warm in the body, or conversely right
and open up the capitillaries let the blood flow, kind
of like if you guys have a dog at home
and gets hot and pent it's their way of keeping cool.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
The blood cools by the panting process. So it's a cast.
So a lot of cool things about this, and you know,
it's great to get.
Speaker 4 (24:59):
One odd fact that read about this cast is that
they usually always curve a little to the right.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
I don't know why that is, you.
Speaker 6 (25:04):
Know, I've no because there's a hemisphere. Oh yeah, my
eyes rolled so back right now. But it was really funny.
Oh you guys, you're killing it with these jokes.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
No.
Speaker 4 (25:16):
Oh, but that brings me one other point too. I
don't think we talked about it. There are three different
kinds of cassaaries right in it.
Speaker 5 (25:22):
Yes, there are. There's the southern castawary, which is the
castery we have here at the Safari Park. There's a
Northern Castawary and then there's the dwarfs, and the southern
Castaway is the biggest of that.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
Yeah, and amazing.
Speaker 4 (25:35):
And in the past we've had castwarries at the Zoo
and also here at the Safari Park.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
Remember, and we're gonna, I know, we're going to aid ourselves.
Way back in the day, there.
Speaker 4 (25:43):
Used to be an area called the Rainforest Habitat, which
is where the practice line for a zip line is now.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
And there was a dwarf.
Speaker 5 (25:50):
Castword and she was the cutest, right, she's sweetest, as.
Speaker 4 (25:54):
Colorful but adorable. Higher mountain ranges of those areas of New.
Speaker 5 (25:58):
Guinea, the much smaller I think around her, like seventy
five pounds.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
We're talking about birds, So seventy bird such a big bird.
Oh yeah, totally Okay, So we have covered quite a bit,
Yeah we did.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
Is there anything you wanted to share with our audience
about Castworris that we haven't touched on yet.
Speaker 5 (26:20):
Well, I do want to say that World Castwery Days
coming off September twenty six, and we're going to be
out here all day on this dep with a bunch
of bio facts to share with everybody. The ones we
talked about exactly like the ones we talked about, and
we're going to have people here giving talks. We're going
to be giving them special treats that you can watch
(26:41):
them eat. We're going to be filling up their wallows
so you can watch them play in the little It's
going to be a fun day.
Speaker 4 (26:48):
And all that information check off the website stz s
at Fari Park dark org and they're called Wildlife Awareness Days,
right so, and this one is going to be for
World Castwory Day, so super stoked and again it's right
here Castuary Deck.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
Talk about Australia is where you want to go?
Speaker 5 (27:02):
Right Anna, definitely thanks well.
Speaker 3 (27:04):
Before we go though, we always like to ask our
guests a little special question and you can get as
personal or as vague as you'd like. But we do
understand that a lot of our audience are up and
common conservationists and wildlifecare specialist and veterinarians of all ages,
and we like to get the story of our guests
how they got to where they are, so maybe our
audience can start to focus on things to get them
(27:25):
if they want to eventually be trained by you to
take over like Marco trained you so how do you
get your.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
Start as a wildlfcare specialist for Castworris.
Speaker 5 (27:32):
I actually got my start. I do have a degree,
and I started a couple of smaller jews that were
under the AZA accreditation, and then I had a friend
send me a job offer that was listed on AZA
for here for doing the overnight condor shit racing, and
(27:52):
so I applied for it. Of course, there was like
one hundred and some odd people that apply for an
overnight position, so I was not I would get it,
but they only interviewed seven people and I was one
of the ones who got it. So I did that
for three years before I got hired on at the
Bird Department part time. So I mean, it is a
long road, and you know, you just have to gain
(28:15):
experience as you go. Working in rescue situations with wildlife
is a really good way to like learn and develop
your skills so that when you get to the point
where you know you're graduating college and you're looking for places,
you are much more valuable and the things you already
know that they're not going to have to teach us.
Speaker 4 (28:34):
That's really good advice and I love you mentioned the
easy A website, The American Associations using aquarium. So a
lot of people were interested. So I got that website.
There's a lot of cool postings. Obviously we want you
to come here. That's also the San Diego Zoo, the Falins.
Paige just want to point out under careers. But to
your point, you know, you never know what's going to happen.
Hundreds of people interviewed seven and you.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
Got it in a banana.
Speaker 5 (28:56):
Yeah, I was very shocked, but I mean it was
all overnight ships. You know, you've got to do the
grunt work sometimes to get where you want to be.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
What a great story, Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 5 (29:06):
It was great talking to you.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
A great day you two friends.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
God, that was so much fun. Wreck guy, I love
these birds. Can we have to amaze We kept it
under two hours? I know.
Speaker 4 (29:19):
Admittedly I went back and I heard our thick built
episode and I'm so excited. I was trying to like
share the little limelight because these birds, I mean, they
get me so amped up because they're so cool and
just the fact, you know, we talked about all these
different attributes that they have. You and I were earlier
talking about just the vocal and itself. How you meat
that is right, I mean in a forced habitat, and
that kind of reminds me of our next episode.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
We're kind of diving into another jungle.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
Before we jump into the I wanted to go back
and reflect a little bit on an interview we just
had because we're talking about world cast worried and coming
up when the events are happening here at the sorry
part before that that'll be happening after this episode comes out,
And I started thinking, well, why have a world castwordy day?
Speaker 2 (29:56):
Why is that important?
Speaker 3 (29:57):
And it brings awareness to this really awesome species. Obviously
you well you're super excited about them.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
I think they're fascinating. This is I'll get out.
Speaker 3 (30:03):
But one thing Anna had mentioned too was that that
seed dispersal, that relationship in the forest, that improvement of
forest diversity in general for plants, which then affects insects, bugs, birds,
mammals everybody else. It's a great reminder that even if
you look at it as you walk by and go out,
it's a fascinating animal. It's so cool a dinosaur moving
on through. A reminder that every species we may or
(30:24):
may not see it on the surface, has such an
important role in our wildlife world in the world we
rely on for fresh water and resources that it just
hits home again how important conservation is in the work
that this organization does.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
It we're blessed to work for. So I just want
to bring that up.
Speaker 4 (30:38):
No, that's great, but literally you know, but also remind
even an animal like a rattle siku. I've learned that
this versus allfice. So we're all interconnected, right, so little
and so we were focusing like you know, so we
have different conservation of them hitting like the Australia forest aies.
We talked about New Guinea, but we're gonna travel over
(30:58):
to Africa, right.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
We're gonna try to Africa next. And by Africa, I
mean probably the San Diego Zoo. When I said that,
it's cool because this species also relies on a it's
like a subsonic communication because of.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
The forests, like the like the castword, but it's not
a bird this time. It's a lot of birds. We're
gonna go check out.
Speaker 3 (31:19):
So I invite everybody to please subscribe if you haven't already,
or follow us on social media whatever it might be,
and be sure to tune in next time when we
go talk to another Wildlifecare specialist about another species that's
not a bird, that has a very awesome low sound
that we can't even hear.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
In fact, the predators they live amongst can't even hear
it either.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
I'm super Sike. I can't wait for it. Well, I'm
Marcott and I'm Rich Schwartz.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
Thanks for listening and for watching.
Speaker 3 (31:51):
For more information about the San Diego Zoo and San
Diego Zoo Safari Park, go to s d zw a
dot org. Amazing Wildlife is a production of iHeartRadio. Our
supervising producers are Nikkia Swinton and Dylan Fagan, and our
sound designers are Sierra Spreen and Matt Russell. For more
shows from iHeartRadio, check out the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
(32:12):
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Ruby.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Hi, I'm Rick Schwartz.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
What does the world Marco went?
Speaker 3 (00:13):
And this This is Amazing Wildlife. It's a podcast where
we explore unique stories of wildlife from around the world
and uncover fascinating animal facts. And this podcast is in
production with iHeartRadio's Ruby Studio and San Diego Zoo Wildlife
Alliance in international nonprofit conservation organization which oversees the San
Diego Zoo. And this amazing place, the San Diego Zoo
Safari Park.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
That was my castaway as Dracula.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Translating a rare species.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
I think this location is probably your most favorite at
this point.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
I mean, friend, I am trying not to get so excited.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
I think the shot, they can probably see it behind you,
so do you guys? Look Nyony.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
For those of you who visually know what's going on,
we're at the walk About Australia behind the castaway right now.
So these are Yara.
Speaker 4 (01:01):
And Maka And I'm super sick because this episode, Buddy,
I can't even focus.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
I know now because this is going to air during
world cast.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Come out a little bit beforehand, yes, but this is
really a great opportunity for us to shine the spotlight
on what I even considered one of the more unique
species of bird that I have ever come across. And
when I first saw them, I thought, wow, these are
really unique.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
This is cool.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
But then we started to learn more about them. For
the anual Planet series that we filmed here a couple
of years back, we got to spend time with them
and I was like mind blown. So again, yes, for
anyone watching, you can see the cast Whorris behind us.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
We're at the cast were a habitat area.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
For those of you that are listening, when you come
to this flypark, come to walk about us. Like Marco said,
this is sort of in the top back area behind
what looks.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Like the woolshed. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Yeah, you gotta go through it right and you see
it and you come.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Out the other side, and it's kind of this beautiful
little corner of this flypark that again they do such
a great job here where Yeah, we are in the
middle of southern California. We are in wow life habitat
that is inland from the ocean, so it's a bit
dry and almost desert like. Yeah, but when you come
here to the Fari Park, you come through walk about Australia,
you forget you're in southern California.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Oh, I know, man, it's such a vibe here too.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
And you know, back in the day, this was an
area that was managing and to your point, this for me,
it's just magic.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
You have the world gardens or fightstrees above us.
Speaker 4 (02:19):
But now you know, I had to pass on the
baton because I got to get an awesome roles of
spokesperson just like you a Migel. And so we have
a wonderful, very passionate human being that is managing these
wonderful dinosaur birds.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Right, So let's talk about why.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Did you introduce yourself to our guests and our audience.
Tell us your name and what's your title here.
Speaker 5 (02:37):
My name is Anna, Hi everyone, and I'm a senior
zoo keeper here at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park.
And yes, I do manage the castowaries. I've been with
them for about five years, about in twenty twenty is
when I took over from Marco, and it's just been
really amazing working with these guys.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
So you're staying around twenty twenty, things improved.
Speaker 4 (02:58):
Here, hold on, hold on, don't want to pull out
my castiwary talent.
Speaker 5 (03:06):
Absolutely amazing and he really worked well with them, so
easy to take over from him because they just start
such great birds, and he had it all ready to go,
and it was just a turnkey situation.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
You know, Anna's being really humble because she's remarkable.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
You know what I love about the bird department is
we have so many different skill sets every department really
with wildlife. But when I came in, it was more
behavior oriented. Was my experiences, and and and many others
on the team showed me a lot, especially about reproduction
and nesting and just maintaining wonderful habitat.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
So props to you and for doing amazing work.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
Speaking of wonderful habitat, one of the things that again
we had mentioned kind of an intro. We're in this
beautiful like transformed area of Australia, but it is wooded,
it is dense forest. Can you tell us a little
bit about cashworry habitat in the wild.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Where are they usually found?
Speaker 3 (03:58):
Obviously we mentioned walking about Australia, so down under book,
maybe tell us a little bit about where they can
be found in the wild.
Speaker 5 (04:04):
They can be found in New Guinea and northeast Australia,
so like the Queensland area. So it's generally a rainforest area.
They do prefer like old growth rainforests, so as you
can see the trees behind us for people who can see,
we've got these huge Ficus trees on our fighters trees.
We do have misters so when it gets warm, we
can increase the humidity with the misters and the birds
(04:27):
really love that. They are very much water creatures, so
we do have pools and wallows, and we do have
a new feature where we can take a stream and
fill up the wallow from the pool and they can
play in that in the afternoon pretty easily. So it's
a nice fun enrichment.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
I really love that you mentioned their water creature is right,
because everyone forgets like.
Speaker 5 (04:49):
Rat such good swimmer, exactly.
Speaker 4 (04:51):
Right, and just being that group of birds and rat
tites we talked about, right, like Ostrich from Africa Kiwis
you know we help with Kiwi conservation here as well.
From New ze We have one of my favorites is
Zara from South America. But these guys, to your point
you said, Northeastern Australia and New Guinea, but this force
air is really really unique and especially what they eat, right,
Can you talk a little bit about what is this particular?
Speaker 2 (05:14):
You see this big bird, right, so a giant claw.
This is god.
Speaker 6 (05:18):
This is like someone's going to kill the animals, right,
I'm assuming, right.
Speaker 4 (05:23):
Yeah, yeah, they well those eyes went way up, Amanda,
you're behind the see do you see those eyes grow
up in her head?
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Yeah? I saw that.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (05:31):
They're very very ferocious. They're very predatory. No, I'm just kidding.
They love fruits. They love to scavenge around for fallen fruit,
so anything that falls off the trees is fair game.
They do have a big, long, four and a half
inch claw. They kind of use that as a rig
to look through the leaf litter for yummy snacks.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
I'm glad he pointed out the main purpose for that, right,
I mean, because I know you and I have both
seen it. But every now and again, if guests spend
some time here, you'll see the cast wearris and it
kind of reminds me of like a jaguar or a
leopard and a tea jungle area where they're watching their
step in a heavy force area. There's roots, there's leaves
and twigs, and to your point in that, you see
them doing it sort of like a raking behavior. When
they're going around right and early you mentioned, you know,
(06:10):
the joke about being a big scary bird. I always
kind of tell people like folks, folks who are listening
right now. If you're listening, you got a smartphone, If
you look up Cassawery, you're gonna hear or see something
like World's most.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Dangerous Bird, right.
Speaker 4 (06:22):
And the Internet it's sensationalizes things quite a bit. But
I have but back me up, Anna, I mean I
tell guests like, you know, it's kind of like a rhino,
you guys, I mean, we all know not to upset
a rhino for a very obvious reason. And I would
say the same thing about a castwhery, right. They have
the potential for defending themselves. And in this intent, it's
a bird. A female over six actually can talk about that.
The size alone, right of this.
Speaker 5 (06:43):
Bird, Well, the females are about five six and they
weigh about one hundred and fifty ish pounds, whereas the
males are about five to two and they weigh about
one hundred and twenty five pounds. The males are a
little more relaxed and chill. The girls have a little
bit of a spicier added a.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Little sauce or the females saying they're more.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
So when it comes to behavior.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
If you have very specific difference as far as the
females are a little more spicy, maybe a little more
territorial aggressive, males a little more laid back. Is there
a reason we have seen why that might be for
survival or is it has to do with different roles
they play for the species?
Speaker 5 (07:23):
Good questions, very good question. The females are the ones
who will meet up with the males and they hang
out for two to three weeks, They lay three to
five eggs for the male, and then they leave. The
male is actually responsible for incubating those eggs for fifty
to fifty five days, raising those babies for about a year.
(07:45):
So they're more chill, they're more tolerant. The females they kind.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Of get to do well. They kind of manage a.
Speaker 5 (07:53):
Larger territory, whereas the males. Two or three males will
be within one female. It's almost like a ver.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
We're expecting to see animal world is.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
Where it's the male has one territory, he wanders amongst
the females.
Speaker 5 (08:07):
This is flipped well, and that seems to be kind
of the way it is in the family that kind
of breaks off before flighted. You see that in Kiwi's
and ostrich and email also, and then it's more than
males that take on that parental role.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
And back to the rat tite concept you're saying, the
ostriches are is a kiwis castworries. Well, I love him
so much.
Speaker 4 (08:26):
They're finding a dinosaurs anathona you know, you know, being
such a big bird. But also to your points, you
know the gender reversal, I absolutely love because think everyone
listening like Australia, think New Guinea, New Zealand. These are
islands that have really evolved to have really unique wildlife, right,
and so you see birds yeah, exactly, not the size
of a female, bigger, I mean to your point, And
(08:47):
it's the female right with the large territory, with the males.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
She's dropped on those eggs and she's out. And it's
the dad.
Speaker 4 (08:53):
When I think of Father's Day, I think of castle
like a macha rating Indiana right now?
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Are male?
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Right? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (09:00):
He everyone for listening.
Speaker 4 (09:01):
The mail sits on the eggs for like fifty four
days straight and raises the babies for up to a year.
So if mom and daddy driving right now, Mom gives
some eyes to do that to your hobby and remind
them about the castary rolls, right and.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
High five to the single dad.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
Job all right, yeah, hi first job. Yeah right, that's great.
And you brought some props today that we can highlight
because it's so hard to describe the castory, but can
you start describing it? And I'm gonna pull some of
these bio facts that we have here visually and we
can go through them.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Is that pork for you?
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Yeah, Well makes it so unique and paid to Like
an Ostrich as an.
Speaker 5 (09:34):
Example, Well, they're really really spectacular in their bright blue
coloring on their neck and then they have these two
little wattles that are bright red, so that's a big contrast.
And since their whole body is covered in feathers except
their head really and it's just these big, long black feathers.
It almost looks like a horse's mane. The feathers are
(09:55):
just real thick.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
I'm gonna grab him because you brought some rick. Let
me show you here so.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
Anybody who listening and not watching, The feathers aren't wide
like you see with regular birds, like no pigeon, chicken, hawk, whatever,
like you said.
Speaker 5 (10:08):
They mostly look like a piece of hair, but then
little tiny hairs off of the edge of it. And
the reason that castowaries have feathers, it's a dual feather.
There's two feather veins, and then it's got the little
tiny little feathers off the sides of it. And it's
to trap more air because it's really hot and humid
(10:29):
and it's hard for them to thermal regulate, so it
really helps trap more air. Creature is the most insulating thing,
so it really gives them this like nice little air
pocket around them. The other thing that it helps with
is they are running through the rainforest. They can run
to thirty one miles an hour, so there is lots
of broken sticks and branches and such, so it kind
(10:49):
of gives them a little layer of bubble wrap around
their belly.
Speaker 4 (10:57):
I bring up usually for a raincoat, you know, but
never thought that as well, you know, for insulation and anana.
You brought these two little things here, so let's describe it, right.
For thinking, the castaway, you look at this big feathered bird,
and on the sides, the wings actually are really really small, right,
These are flightless birds, rat tights I were talking about.
Speaker 5 (11:13):
Yeah, they're flightless, so ostrich can take their wings and
kind of move them around and dance a little bit.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Oh right.
Speaker 5 (11:18):
Cassowaries don't even have that ability. They don't have the
musculature the tendence to even do that, So their wings
just kind of hang down by their sides and they're
just a little bit above their leg right against their body.
You'll see it almost looks like little black pencils or
little black chopsticks.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Oh yeah, right now, yeah, acts that's a good point.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
Yeah, like little black chopsticks.
Speaker 4 (11:39):
Or if people a little more feather orange or aware,
or when a feather's just growing out, the little like
casing around it kind of looks like that, like a premature.
Speaker 5 (11:46):
Feather, and they're like, you know, they can be as
long as like twelve inches long. Yeah, and some of
them are shorter, but they do molt out every single year,
just like their feathers. So I do find them around
the exhibit.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
You mentioned, and that the bodies feathers. Marco's saying that
they're like a raincoat. They're a bubble wraptor installation. Why
do we have dangly chopsticks off the wing.
Speaker 4 (12:09):
I asked the same question I've wondered about, and I
don't know if you've experienced this Anna once before.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
So we have four castwarris here at the Safari Park, two.
Speaker 4 (12:16):
That our guests can experience and walk about, and we
have two others in our bird conservation center where they're
focused on helping with population.
Speaker 5 (12:22):
Right.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
So Kaya, she's the big female.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Reputation personality.
Speaker 4 (12:31):
But what I was going to say when I first
was introduced to Kaya again, you know, some animals communicat
in different ways. So she wanted to show me she's
a big bird, and I needed to watch myself, you know,
which I totally respect. So what she did is actually
came towards me, facing me, and she flared out those
things to me. And that was the only time, you too,
that I've ever seen any use of those casings, you know,
(12:53):
the rudimentary feathers. Was that to present more of a
threatening position to make sure that I knew and it
worked back the way we were intimidated.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
I mean, we're making Jack.
Speaker 4 (13:04):
So I also want to point out what makes your
job so unique, I think, and props to all the
work that you do with these animals, and that It's
also a term that we use here into world called
protected contact.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Right. So for instance, we're not.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
Going to go in with maybe an animal like an
elephant or a jaguire, right, or a tiger, And we
want to do that with a castory as well.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
We have good relationship with these birds, but right we're
not going to be going in.
Speaker 5 (13:25):
No, there is no reason to go in with the cassuary.
I mean, their first line of defense is always to run.
But why would we want to scare them, you know?
And why would we want to The only time they're
going to use that claw in a dangerous manner is
if they feel cornered and nervous or scared. So I
don't want to put them in that position. I don't
want to put myself in that position. My kids would
(13:46):
not appreciate it. But they are very well trained. They
know how to shift. We can move them from exhibit
to exhibit, we can put them in the barn for
a few minutes. They do go into crates if we
do need to transfer them somewhere else, So there's no
need for us to necessarily get in the same space
with them. Even when they're being vaccinated. We do have
(14:08):
our vet staff come out and they see our vet
staff at least once a month, if not more, and
we practice giving their injections and doing a fake exam
so that when it comes to the real time to
do it, they're not worried. It's a no big deal.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Yeah, I see, it's great voluntary inoculations.
Speaker 4 (14:25):
But it's one of many aspects for the health of
the animals under our care right to do these amazing things.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
So I absolutely love that.
Speaker 4 (14:31):
And you know, we got distracted with other attributes of Castworry,
but I wanted to say, because we were describing the feathers,
can you also talk about the foot because you brought
a really cool mold of the foot of a.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Kind of a couple times.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
But yeah, it's bigger than my hand, you guys.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
So it's so for those of you are listening, he's holding.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
Up a casting of a castworry footprint and yeah, definitely
bigger than a human hand, right, pretty.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Big, right, Yeah.
Speaker 5 (14:55):
So she has a really big, giant middle toe and
then there's two toe on either side, and that inside
toe is the one that's got the four and a
half inch long nail. We weren't able to get a
good cast of the toenail because it really doesn't touch
down on the ground. But her right, Yeah, good print
looks exactly like a dinos and.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
People always bring that up.
Speaker 4 (15:18):
And yeah, I tell people because again, like it started
with the dinosaurs as a kid, and when they look
at a castilorry, how can you not think of the dinosaur.
There is one called an oliver raptor, which is a
dinosaur that eight eggs. It looks remarkably similar to this animal.
Now we're not saying there's scientific evidence of a dinosaur
linked to a castawary, but there's a lot of good
opinion and some evidence it shows that hers are modern.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
I think if you look at the skeletule structure of
what we've seen in fossils, you look at the skeletal
structure of the castwerry.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
If nothing else, the castwerry allows us to imagine how
dinosaurs would move. Oh, exactly, look right, just on a
much larger scale, totally.
Speaker 4 (15:53):
I mean everything about it, even including the eggs, right,
And can you describe to our listeners, Will I grab
this object here that you've brought, what does it look like?
Speaker 5 (16:02):
The egg is a big green egg. It's almost like
a lime green It's almost about the size of a
very large avocado or a mango, but it's a really
bright green color. And you would think that that green
color would stand out like a sore thumb in them
in all the rainforest, but with all the different greens
and stuff, it just totally blends in and is totally camouflaged.
Speaker 4 (16:24):
I know.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
I love that.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
Yeah, and again, for those that are only listening and
not watching Marco's God in his Lap now a makeshift
nest with three eggs, they are I think mangoes are good.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
I want to point out right, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
But yeah, they're bout the size of a mango, but
the coloration almost remind me of a not quite right watermelon.
Colors in the sense to speckled, are not striped, but
in the sense of the coloration of those shades of green,
and absolutely sitting out here with us right now is like, well,
those are quite obvious, but yeah, perfect camouflage in the wild,
like we see a lot of the bright parrots sometimes
(16:55):
blend in perfectly into the trees because those colorations break
up very well in the sunlight and everything else. So
do we know why they're I mean, obviously we just
said they're camouflage, but is there a particular mineral in
their body or what isn't that makes it green?
Speaker 1 (17:07):
To me, it's more of the being a forest bird.
Speaker 4 (17:09):
So I think of an animal like a tinumu, remember Anna,
like that beautiful green egg that a tinamu has, very similar,
but they're both terrestrial or ground dwelling animals, so it
has to do with that. I think it's more camouflage,
right and can when I think about a tinumu egg
as well, which I know Ron is.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
Also part of the team here in Australia.
Speaker 4 (17:26):
He has a really cool fact that the tinumu is
actually the living descendant of the Tyrannosaurus racks.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Just want to point that out too as well.
Speaker 4 (17:33):
So even the smallest little word right, all right, Ron,
you're being called out here, you know the.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Show Who do you Think you are?
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Like?
Speaker 2 (17:39):
I'd love to see that interview, right, little.
Speaker 4 (17:43):
Quail looking thing, you know I identify as a t rex? No,
But my brain's buzzing because there's so much to talk
about these birds. But the one that I absolutely love
for Meana and Rick, it's that they're forest twellers to
neither forest guardians. You talked about it a bit already
being a frugal or an animal that eats a lot
of fruit out there in the wilds and the forest
where they're from, right, Yeah, and.
Speaker 5 (18:04):
Then one really cool thing about that is they are
really good at seed dispersal. Yes, So in areas where
there are cassowaries, the species diversity goes up by twenty
five percent. Yeah, so it's really important that we have
castawerries out there to keep that biodiversity.
Speaker 4 (18:20):
Yeah, giving to point those old growth forests, and I
had read it's over thirty different species of endangered trees
that grow best when they go through the gut of
a cassowerry. I mean, the intestines are so short that
fruit like a whole mango, which they can consume, one
of the only animals in that area that can swallow
a whole mango down.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
And then because it's a short digestive track, it doesn't
really absorb all the material, all the meat of the fruit.
Speaker 4 (18:42):
So when they defecate, when they go poop, you know,
they're putting out a big old thing, maybe a mango
seed or a pie seed, depending on the fruit. And
I had to talk about my favorite poop the other
day and guess what I talked about.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
It's what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
Yeah, you can tease me. All you want to listen
is with my thing. I'm sure you do it too.
Speaker 4 (19:01):
And in the morning, you know, you have to check
out where the animals have been moving around in their activity.
And I would love to inspect the castlory poop every
day because it looks so cool, right, can use.
Speaker 5 (19:10):
Big chunks of stood in it. I mean you'll see
like a whole quarter of an apple, a bit of
a pair. You know, you can definitely recognize what types that.
You can see pieces of honeydew melon. In the wild,
they do have a fruit called the castawary plum, which
is very, very toxic. The only species that eats it
is the castawary. Because their digestive track is so short,
(19:32):
it's not really toxic to them. Isn't that insane?
Speaker 3 (19:35):
And I think initially, I mean we kind of talked
about their seed dispersive, so it gives the answer. But
I think initially someone who would hear that, oh, food
comes out only half digested at most, what's the point
of that. But they can glean the energy they need
from it, and then the forest benefits tremendously because they're
basically pooping out fertilizer with the seeds and giving the
seeds the nutrients they need then to sprout and grow.
(19:56):
The connection between animals and plants.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
And you know, just like in general, is so so amazing.
Sometimes it really is.
Speaker 5 (20:03):
And sometimes the feces will grow like a white fuzz
to it. Sometimes it's an iridescent blue. Wow, it's so interesting,
like the next morning.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Rainbow.
Speaker 5 (20:17):
It just looks different at different times of the year.
I think in the winter we see more of a
blue tint to the poop. So I don't know what
kind of a fungus yeah is growing on it, but
it's just interesting to see how it changes.
Speaker 4 (20:30):
It's all those nuances of being a forest animal, right right,
not only nesting, trying to track the mate can be difficult.
I mean you mentioned the female's dominant one with a
bunch of males in her territory, but you know they
got to find each other, right.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
Can you talk about what makes a cassiary vocal?
Speaker 2 (20:46):
These birds are huge, These birds are big. How can
you not see each other? A forest?
Speaker 4 (20:50):
I mean it's a thick rainforest, friend, you know, I
mean I've been in places where a lot of people
and I have trouble seeing my husband.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
And actually, I'm going to admit something right now.
Speaker 4 (20:57):
I use a peacock hall because, for instance, will make
the only places where he gets very excited. He's kind
of a labrador runs off, you know, he knows. I
mean that's in a good way. He's very loving and
I love him very much. But when he gets excited,
I do a call, a bird call to get his attention,
you know, because he knows that call is me, and
it works.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
Oh, I feel like you are basically doing what castiworries
do to find each other. Maybe maybe maybe might be
a little more primitive.
Speaker 4 (21:19):
You know.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
How do castaworries find each other? Even though they're big
birds and they cannot be seen in the forest.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
They can't see girl because it's a dense forest far
And I mean, I will admit I'm surprised. A bird
that's weighing over one hundred pounds is extremely quiet too.
It's amazing how quiet they are, even walking in the
leaf litter. So Anna, how do they find each other
in the forest.
Speaker 5 (21:39):
Well, they do make these low booming noises. And when
Maka and Yard do it in the barn. I can
actually feel it in my chest before I hear it,
and then it kind of subsides again and then I
can't hear it, but I can still feel it.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
So it's a sub sonic sound, so it's so low.
Speaker 5 (21:57):
You can't hear it, but then it's a boom. Marco,
would you like to do the bar?
Speaker 4 (22:00):
I mean, I'm not there get at it, but I'm
gonna track. It's kind of like that, all right, sound care?
Speaker 1 (22:04):
Here we go. It's like a but it's like very
white deep. It's like very white could go even ten
times for those of you who knew very white is
do any of you back then looking at your face?
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Cheese?
Speaker 1 (22:15):
No, I'm calling it the young one out. But anyway,
the call, it's so deep.
Speaker 4 (22:19):
It's the deepest vocal of any bird on the planet,
and it's wicked. It reminds me of elephants, is anything
same thing? They have a really low for you, Yeah,
and it travels for them across savannahs. But to your point,
Anna and Ricka the ecosystem.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
For a castworry. Their calls gotta go way.
Speaker 5 (22:34):
Out there right, definitely, And so both of them will
call to each other and so they'll do basically like
an echolocation type of situation the lower frequencies. So that's
how they do find each other.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Oh sorry, I got distrack in my head and thought
like I went like the cassary, like the castaway.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
Can you hear me? They're singing through the bars of
the bird world.
Speaker 5 (22:57):
Well, one thing that really does help the cast to
where carry that low frequency sound further is the cask
on their head. It's like a little helmet.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
I was going to say, we talked about the little
stubby wings. There's a lot of similarities that they have
with others in their families. So this is an ostrich emu,
but this is unique.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Yeah, we're holding a replica everyone who are not watching.
Speaker 4 (23:18):
Eventually all this is going to be on YouTube our
YouTube channel by the way, But yeah, we have a replica.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
And can you describe this thing? What's on top of
the head?
Speaker 5 (23:24):
Well, first of all, it's plastic. Nobody get worried. It's
not real, I promise. So underneath this helmet or cask
is a spongy material and then it's basically fingernail material
over the top.
Speaker 4 (23:39):
Basically, if you're listening on touching nails oh yeah, let
me do it here holding them out there, we go.
Speaker 5 (23:49):
Yeah, hollow, it's hollow, So that helps act to amplify
those low booming noises. The other thing that this cast
does which is really really helpful is when they're running
and they can run up to thirty one miles an
hour through the four Yeah, sure, in a dense rainfores,
what they do is they stick their head down really
low and then they push through the rainforest. It acts
almost like a little makeshift machety for that.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:10):
And so for those that aren't watching that are only
listening a couple of times, it is kind of like
a helmet, but it's more of a fin shape, almost
like a dorsal fin.
Speaker 5 (24:16):
Yeah, like a dorsal fin. And the males is thin
at the top, okay, and the females is really wide.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
We had mentioned that this is to help amplify the
sound helps coming through the forest. Do they use it
to defend themselves when fighting?
Speaker 4 (24:29):
Is it strictly the feet like you know, I've also
read that there are studies of blood being circulated through
this material, So actually you go help in thermal regulation
a thermori.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
It's like the ears of an elephant.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
I'm just gonna say the exact same thing.
Speaker 4 (24:39):
Yeah, so maybe on a colder day, the castlory will
constrict the vessels up above, so we restrict the movement
of the blood into the cast. They don't keep the
blood nice and warm in the body, or conversely right
and open up the capitillaries let the blood flow, kind
of like if you guys have a dog at home
and gets hot and pent it's their way of keeping cool.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
The blood cools by the panting process. So it's a cast.
So a lot of cool things about this, and you know,
it's great to get.
Speaker 4 (24:59):
One odd fact that read about this cast is that
they usually always curve a little to the right.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
I don't know why that is, you.
Speaker 6 (25:04):
Know, I've no because there's a hemisphere. Oh yeah, my
eyes rolled so back right now. But it was really funny.
Oh you guys, you're killing it with these jokes.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
No.
Speaker 4 (25:16):
Oh, but that brings me one other point too. I
don't think we talked about it. There are three different
kinds of cassaaries right in it.
Speaker 5 (25:22):
Yes, there are. There's the southern castawary, which is the
castery we have here at the Safari Park. There's a
Northern Castawary and then there's the dwarfs, and the southern
Castaway is the biggest of that.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
Yeah, and amazing.
Speaker 4 (25:35):
And in the past we've had castwarries at the Zoo
and also here at the Safari Park.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
Remember, and we're gonna, I know, we're going to aid ourselves.
Way back in the day, there.
Speaker 4 (25:43):
Used to be an area called the Rainforest Habitat, which
is where the practice line for a zip line is now.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
And there was a dwarf.
Speaker 5 (25:50):
Castword and she was the cutest, right, she's sweetest, as.
Speaker 4 (25:54):
Colorful but adorable. Higher mountain ranges of those areas of New.
Speaker 5 (25:58):
Guinea, the much smaller I think around her, like seventy
five pounds.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
We're talking about birds, So seventy bird such a big bird.
Oh yeah, totally Okay, So we have covered quite a bit,
Yeah we did.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
Is there anything you wanted to share with our audience
about Castworris that we haven't touched on yet.
Speaker 5 (26:20):
Well, I do want to say that World Castwery Days
coming off September twenty six, and we're going to be
out here all day on this dep with a bunch
of bio facts to share with everybody. The ones we
talked about exactly like the ones we talked about, and
we're going to have people here giving talks. We're going
to be giving them special treats that you can watch
(26:41):
them eat. We're going to be filling up their wallows
so you can watch them play in the little It's
going to be a fun day.
Speaker 4 (26:48):
And all that information check off the website stz s
at Fari Park dark org and they're called Wildlife Awareness Days,
right so, and this one is going to be for
World Castwory Day, so super stoked and again it's right
here Castuary Deck.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
Talk about Australia is where you want to go?
Speaker 5 (27:02):
Right Anna, definitely thanks well.
Speaker 3 (27:04):
Before we go though, we always like to ask our
guests a little special question and you can get as
personal or as vague as you'd like. But we do
understand that a lot of our audience are up and
common conservationists and wildlifecare specialist and veterinarians of all ages,
and we like to get the story of our guests
how they got to where they are, so maybe our
audience can start to focus on things to get them
(27:25):
if they want to eventually be trained by you to
take over like Marco trained you so how do you
get your.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
Start as a wildlfcare specialist for Castworris.
Speaker 5 (27:32):
I actually got my start. I do have a degree,
and I started a couple of smaller jews that were
under the AZA accreditation, and then I had a friend
send me a job offer that was listed on AZA
for here for doing the overnight condor shit racing, and
(27:52):
so I applied for it. Of course, there was like
one hundred and some odd people that apply for an
overnight position, so I was not I would get it,
but they only interviewed seven people and I was one
of the ones who got it. So I did that
for three years before I got hired on at the
Bird Department part time. So I mean, it is a
long road, and you know, you just have to gain
(28:15):
experience as you go. Working in rescue situations with wildlife
is a really good way to like learn and develop
your skills so that when you get to the point
where you know you're graduating college and you're looking for places,
you are much more valuable and the things you already
know that they're not going to have to teach us.
Speaker 4 (28:34):
That's really good advice and I love you mentioned the
easy A website, The American Associations using aquarium. So a
lot of people were interested. So I got that website.
There's a lot of cool postings. Obviously we want you
to come here. That's also the San Diego Zoo, the Falins.
Paige just want to point out under careers. But to
your point, you know, you never know what's going to happen.
Hundreds of people interviewed seven and you.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
Got it in a banana.
Speaker 5 (28:56):
Yeah, I was very shocked, but I mean it was
all overnight ships. You know, you've got to do the
grunt work sometimes to get where you want to be.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
What a great story, Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 5 (29:06):
It was great talking to you.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
A great day you two friends.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
God, that was so much fun. Wreck guy, I love
these birds. Can we have to amaze We kept it
under two hours? I know.
Speaker 4 (29:19):
Admittedly I went back and I heard our thick built
episode and I'm so excited. I was trying to like
share the little limelight because these birds, I mean, they
get me so amped up because they're so cool and
just the fact, you know, we talked about all these
different attributes that they have. You and I were earlier
talking about just the vocal and itself. How you meat
that is right, I mean in a forced habitat, and
that kind of reminds me of our next episode.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
We're kind of diving into another jungle.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
Before we jump into the I wanted to go back
and reflect a little bit on an interview we just
had because we're talking about world cast worried and coming
up when the events are happening here at the sorry
part before that that'll be happening after this episode comes out,
And I started thinking, well, why have a world castwordy day?
Speaker 2 (29:56):
Why is that important?
Speaker 3 (29:57):
And it brings awareness to this really awesome species. Obviously
you well you're super excited about them.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
I think they're fascinating. This is I'll get out.
Speaker 3 (30:03):
But one thing Anna had mentioned too was that that
seed dispersal, that relationship in the forest, that improvement of
forest diversity in general for plants, which then affects insects, bugs, birds,
mammals everybody else. It's a great reminder that even if
you look at it as you walk by and go out,
it's a fascinating animal. It's so cool a dinosaur moving
on through. A reminder that every species we may or
(30:24):
may not see it on the surface, has such an
important role in our wildlife world in the world we
rely on for fresh water and resources that it just
hits home again how important conservation is in the work
that this organization does.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
It we're blessed to work for. So I just want
to bring that up.
Speaker 4 (30:38):
No, that's great, but literally you know, but also remind
even an animal like a rattle siku. I've learned that
this versus allfice. So we're all interconnected, right, so little
and so we were focusing like you know, so we
have different conservation of them hitting like the Australia forest aies.
We talked about New Guinea, but we're gonna travel over
(30:58):
to Africa, right.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
We're gonna try to Africa next. And by Africa, I
mean probably the San Diego Zoo. When I said that,
it's cool because this species also relies on a it's
like a subsonic communication because of.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
The forests, like the like the castword, but it's not
a bird this time. It's a lot of birds. We're
gonna go check out.
Speaker 3 (31:19):
So I invite everybody to please subscribe if you haven't already,
or follow us on social media whatever it might be,
and be sure to tune in next time when we
go talk to another Wildlifecare specialist about another species that's
not a bird, that has a very awesome low sound
that we can't even hear.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
In fact, the predators they live amongst can't even hear
it either.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
I'm super Sike. I can't wait for it. Well, I'm
Marcott and I'm Rich Schwartz.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
Thanks for listening and for watching.
Speaker 3 (31:51):
For more information about the San Diego Zoo and San
Diego Zoo Safari Park, go to s d zw a
dot org. Amazing Wildlife is a production of iHeartRadio. Our
supervising producers are Nikkia Swinton and Dylan Fagan, and our
sound designers are Sierra Spreen and Matt Russell. For more
shows from iHeartRadio, check out the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
(32:12):
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Hosts And Creators
Rick Schwartz
Marco Wendt
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