OT: Why the World's Deadliest Bird Keeps Breaking Into People's Houses

[Photographer]

Recently, Oceania’s most formidable ratite—the cassowary—has been breaking and entering the houses of Queensland residents, requiring wildlife officials to relocate them. Last week, a young cassowary named “Ruthie” was captured in Coquette Point after she “threatened an older man and tried to enter his Innisfail home,” according to the Brisbane Times.

While this probably conjures images of something more sinister, here’s what likely happened, according to officials: Locals had been feeding the neighborhood’s cassowaries, and habituated them to rely on people for food. Ruthie, being a hungry wild animal, approached the man expecting an easy, tasty treat. But Ruthie is also a cassowary, and sports talons that can disembowel a human, so her eager advances were more terrifying than puppy dog-like.

More at http://motherboard.vice.com/read/why-the-worlds-deadliest-bird-keeps-breaking-into-peoples-houses-cassowary-queensland

Mini Dino?

[Rex]

1. .

[underahedgerow]

2. OMG that thing is HUGE!!!

Not so much like pigeons I think.

[underahedgerow]

3. 'Let's put him in a pot!' as Ruby said

in Cold Mountain.

That'd make a heckuva omelette! Roast Sunday lunch?

[Photographer]

4. More on this bird...

[TreasonousBastard]

5. Ouch!

http://io9.gizmodo.com/the-absolute-worst-way-to-die-in-the-wild-is-death-by-c-638534080

And why does Australia have so many miserable ways to die?

[Liberal_in_LA]

6. They look like dr. Suess animals

[suffragette]

7. Yikes, that is a big bird.

http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2015/03/24/revealing-a-modern-day-velociraptor/

Standing five feet tall and topping 100 pounds, the flightless cassowary is the MMA champion of the avian world. It can jump five feet in the air, swim across rivers, and has inner toes that bear five-inch slashing blades, built to disembowel.

Though shy, these modern-day velociraptors have been known to attack and even kill humans, a prospect so “terrifying and ignominious” that Outside magazine once ranked death by cassowary as one of the 10 worst ways to die in the wild. Still, attacks on people are generally rare, mostly occur as a result of poor human judgment, and can usually be avoided by following this simple rule: do not provoke the giant bird armed with murderous dagger claws.

[TacoD]

8. "World's deadliest bird" implies that it has killed a lot of people -doesn't seem to be the case nt

[Photographer]

9. Actually, it does. And has. Read much before posting?

Can you name another bird that has killed more other than through ptomaine?

[SunSeeker]

10. No reason to insult TacoD, particularly since the article mentions no killing.

The article does link to another article to substatiate the deadliness of the birds, but that article offers this:

On mainland Australia, the most recent recorded fatality occurred in April 1926 when 16-year-old Phillip McClean received an injury to the throat after running from a cassowary and falling to the ground.

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/tetrapod-zoology/how-dangerous-are-cassowaries-really/

In other words, the bird didn't kill the kid, the fall did.

Seems to me the bird is rather calm, if the video in the OP is at all representative. There are many more dangerous critters down under to worry about than this thing. Hell, even Koalas are pretty nasty creatures. Although I will grant you that a Cassowary is fearsome looking ... and huge. I wish I had seen one when I was traveling through Australia.

[Photographer]

11. Ah, Okay then. Let us in on another bird that has killed more people.

[SunSeeker]

12. Chickens.

Bird kills man at cockfight | World news | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/feb/08/cock-kills-man-california-cockfight

How Dangerous Are Cassowaries, Really? - Scientific American Blog Network
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/tetrapod-zoology/how-dangerous-are-cassowaries-really/


I got the links from your article.

[Photographer]

13. Chickens with razors attached to them...

The 2nd article is informative but does not dissuade.

[SunSeeker]

14. The 2nd article also mentions ostriches and eagles.

Again, these links are referenced by your article.

[kaiden]

15. I have a rooster that took a swipe at my calf.

The spurs on these bigger birds are dangerous.

[Photographer]

16. Yes, but not to attrbutable dearhs.

[Photographer]

17. Try this: Google World's Deadliest Bird

[SunSeeker]

18. The "danger" here is that this poor creature is on the brink of extinction.

There are only 1,500 left in the wild, due to habitat destruction from human encroachment and global warming.

[LanternWaste]

20. With objective numbers of human death by specific bird species to support your premise?

With objective numbers of human death by specific bird species to support your premise?

[SunSeeker]

21. It is the OP who is making a premise.

I thought it was rude of the OP poster to accuse someone of not reading the OP when the OP article did not provide the facts to support its premise.

It appears to me the only ones in danger here are the poor cassowaries.

[LanternWaste]

19. Seems to imply it merely kills more than any other single species of bird.

Seems to imply it merely kills more than any other single species of bird.