Did you know our cassowary Darwin can eat tremendously large pieces of fruit, in one simple gulp?
In the wild, cassowaries are known as a keystone species of their rainforest habitat because they are able to eat fallen fruit whole and distribute the seeds over large areas of habitat. The fruit of over 70 species of plants are too large to be ingested by any other animal in the Australian rainforest but the cassowary!
If you’ve come to a cassowary keeper chat, or read a bit about cassowaries, you may have known all of that. However, did you know zookeepers are always hungry and are notoriously voracious eaters?
Saturday, July 23rd, come to the Cassowary Exhibit to see an epic battle of the appetites, as bird keepers bravely take on Darwin to see who can eat three whole apples first!
Join us at 11 AM as we pit man against bird! Cheer on our big bird or our keepers! Who will come out on top?
(I’ll give you a hint: I’m betting on the bird!)
Darwin, practicing for the big event. Photo by Samantha Montgomery
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