The living dinosaur bird with a dagger on each foot
This bird is basically a living dinosaur — and it can open you up with one kick.
Which one is REALLY true about the Cassowary?
The short version
The cassowary is often called the world's most dangerous bird. It stands up to six feet tall, sprints at 30 mph, jumps nearly five feet, and has a dagger-like claw up to five inches long on each inner toe. A close living relative of the dinosaurs, it's powerful but shy.
The Cassowary is about 1.5× as long as a 7-year-old! 🤯
Why it's so weird
- ✓The Cassowary has a dagger-shaped claw up to five inches long on each foot, and can slash with a single kick.
- ✓The Cassowary stands up to six feet tall and weighs over a hundred pounds, making it one of the tallest birds alive.
- ✓The Cassowary wears a strange bony helmet on top of its head.
- ✓The Cassowary is a close cousin of the dinosaurs, with scaly legs and clawed feet to match.
- ✓The Cassowary can sprint at thirty miles an hour and leap nearly five feet to drive home a kick.
The full story
This bird is basically a living dinosaur, and it can open you up with a single kick. Meet the cassowary, widely called the most dangerous bird on Earth. It stands up to six feet tall, weighs over a hundred pounds, and wears a strange bony helmet on top of its head. But the real weapon is on its feet. Each foot has a dagger-shaped claw up to five inches long, and the bird can sprint at thirty miles an hour and leap nearly five feet to drive it home. It is also a close cousin of the dinosaurs, with the scaly legs and clawed feet to match. Despite all of that, it is actually shy and mostly just wants to eat fallen fruit and be left alone. It can even swim across rivers and crash through dense jungle like a tank. A real dinosaur, hiding in the rainforest. Follow for more weird animal facts.
A cassowary's kick is dangerous mostly because of physics. Its big, muscly legs are built for sprinting through thick forest, so they can swing with a lot of force. That force gets focused onto one sharp, dagger-shaped claw on the inner toe, made of keratin (the same stuff your fingernails are made of). Pushing a big force through one narrow, pointed claw is what lets it slice, the same way a pencil tip pokes harder than your flat hand.
📚 Source: Cassowary — Wikipedia ↗Researchers have measured the dagger-like claw on a cassowary's inner toe at up to about 125 mm (5 inches) and identified it as keratin, the same material as fingernails. Anatomical studies show cassowaries have the heavy leg bones and muscles typical of ratites like emus and ostriches, which is what gives their kick so much force.
📚 Source: Cassowary — Wikipedia ↗Check what you learned
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“The Cassowary has a dagger-shaped claw up to five inches long on each foot, and can slash with a single kick.”
“The Cassowary fires a sticky tongue twice the length of its whole body in about a hundredth of a second.”
“The Cassowary stands up to six feet tall and weighs over a hundred pounds, making it one of the tallest birds alive.”
Watch the 45-second version
Cassowary gallery
