All 4 cassowaries came back early this morning (so they did spend the night together!).
When a chick spotted the piece of banana that I put into a tree for the honey-eaters and catbirds, it tried to reach it by jumping-and “treading air” while doing so.
Dad wasn’t interested in helping (he usually does), but the banana was within easy reach for mum.
The local male cassowary looks after the chicks alone, like any other cassowary dad.
He crosses paths with the local female occasionally, and when they are ready to mate they travel together for a few weeks.
We would not expect this to happen for a few months yet, his chicks being approximately 6 months old, and he usually looks after them for about 9 months.
Yesterday evening the whole family arrived together (dad, the 2 chicks and mum) and, after picking up some palm fruits and drinking from our pond, disappeared into the forest.
I was not quite game enough to follow them, to find out whether they would bed down together, as well. Usually, when I tried to follow a cassowary -at a safe distance- I was always noticed and chose to retreat.
So why is there the perception that cassowaries are solitairy animals? Certainly our male and female get along very well and the same is true for some cassowaries in the Daintree area.
Any biologists out there doing studies on cassoway behaviour?