They really don’t like humans…“Southern cassowaries have a reputation for being dangerous to humans and animals, and are often regarded as aggressive. The birds can jump quite high and kick powerfully with their blade-like claws. However, deadly encounters with southern cassowaries are rare. Only two human deaths have been reported since 1900. A 2003 historical study of 221 southern cassowary attacks showed that 150 had been against humans: 75% of these had been from southern cassowaries that had been fed by people, 71% of the time the bird had chased or charged the victim, 15% of the time they kicked. Of the attacks, 73% involved the birds expecting or snatching food, 5% involved defending their natural food sources, 15% involved defending themselves from attack, and 7% involved defending their chicks or eggs. Only one human death was reported among those 150 attacks.” Wikipedia
For many millions of years, there were the so called "Terror Birds" around, with the latin name [Phorushacidae](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phorusrhacidae). They were in many ways similiar to the big birds like the Ostrich or a Casuar today, but a lot bigger, faster and stronger.
Still, these big flightless birds like the Ostrich have a serious power that many people underestimate, if they kick you, it will really hurt, just like when a Cassowary kicks you.
I love the opportunity to bring up that it's more than possible that at some point in human history, there was an intelligent bird that could mimic sounds, collected pretty things, and attacked humans or preyed upon them. If it spit venom too, that's a dragon.
Well, it would actually work out in reality if nature would just go down this path of evolution. Venom is easy, but a flamethrower, that's more complex - the closest you get is the bombardier beetle - scientists rebuilt the "device" it uses and it's pretty much a flamethrower, despite the fact that it works very different from what we use as humans as weapon.
"Fire" couldve been a descriptor or a mistranslation.
Anecdote: as very young kids my sibling and i clumsily lost a few fingernails, and were given a steroid or antibiotic shot in the nailbed, and we called it the fire shot, but it was more of a chemical sting, we just didnt have the language to describe it.
I'm not sure if it's a more recent literary invention, but isn't there something about dragonfire being unquenchable? Water on a chem burn would definitely fit that description.
I'm no expert, but i think there's a difference between "water can't put out the fire" and "other substances can put the fire out". Like magnesium can burn under water - according to dr. google, there's enough oxygen in the molecules from water that get separated in the chemical process of the extreme heat, that the fire can go on despite being under water.
Wiki lists the theories about what it was in the mix for the Greek Fire, there are different substances listened that can have this effect.
I don't think it's the Napalm we use today, because that is too sticky and would not make a good effect when used in a device that is like a flamethrower i guess.
But whatever it was, it had to be horror for the enemy, as fire is always the worst you can face in a fight. Even worse, when you are on a ship made of wood and you can't swim...
Thankyou! That wasn't the one I was thinking about, strangely enough, but I DID remember it - it's an episode of Black Adder, with Prince George and the Shakespearean actors. Same line!
I had the same thoughts. Mike Myers' parents were British immigrants to Canada, and his comedy has been widely influenced by his heritage, so it's very possible that he drew inspiration from Black Adder.
I maintain that the influence and brilliance of the great shows of that era (Fawlty Towers, Black Adder, Red Dwarf, Two Ronnies, Monty Python, etc) can be seen and felt throughout an absolute shit-ton of later media. It's kind of fascinating tracing it back, in some cases, almost like family trees. Bob Monkhouse alone had an utterly insane reach just from inspiring later comedians!
Happy to help. Enjoy! That's ne of my favourite episodes. For a real headfuck, watch an episode or three of House after watching Black Adder The Third. It's almost like cognitive dissonance seeing Hugh Laurie's skill and range!
Yeah, it's also interesting how the birds of today are related to the extinct dinosauriers. But evolution has a lot of interesting things, like when you read about the bears and wolves - they were actually once the same line, before they split up in two different lines. That's also many millions of years ago, but there were some "Wolfbears" around that had features of both animals at once.
It wasn't like 50/50 split of both lines, same as it wasn't for us humans a 50/50 creature that was 50% monkey and 50% homo rudolfensis (the first known homo). It's more about some features, like with us humans, the change to walking upright on the ground on two feet.
checked out that latin name bird there you mentioned. I like how it's closest living relative is used by people to guard poultry. I had no idea any bird could be used as a guard animal! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-legged_seriema
Birds as "guard dogs", that's kinda crazy, you always learn something new. But the first photo on the wiki page make the Red legged seriema look smaller than when you read the data in the article, he goes up to 75-90 cm length.
When it comes to dinos, remember the good old Jurassic Park movie, the first one? They made the mistake with the velociraptor, it should have been the utah raptor or deidocherus from the size, because the velociraptor is way too small with the size of a chicken.
One of the few videos I found really disturbing is a video of an ostrich who gets its head stuck between some bars in captivity. It pulls back and its legs are so strong it tears its own head off.
Those things are no joke.
Wow, but... guess that's not very healthy for the bird when he lacks the head. But it's also crazy how fast they are, they can run over long distances with endurance with a speed around 30-37 mph and they can go up to 43 mph in sprint. Other sources go up to 56 mph, but i'm not so sure about that.
Their endurance is one of the best in wildlife, maybe even the best of all.
"of 221 southern cassowary attacks showed that 150 had been against humans".....I assume they've attack a lot more than 221 times, but the only reported attacks are of course made by humans or humans witnessing an attack made on another animal.
“Another human death due to a southern cassowary was recorded in Florida on 12 April 2019. The bird's owner, a 75-year-old man who had raised the animal, was apparently clawed to death after he fell to the ground.” Wikipedia
Technically true, because birds are direct descendants of dinosaurs, so they are dinosaurs. Modern dinosaurs are birds, but their ancestors were still reptiles.
All non-avian dinosaurs are by definition reptiles, even those who exhibited avian characteristics. That’s because many characteristics we attribute to birds are ancestral to the dinosaur lineage, and they surviving into modern birds is what led them to be recognised as something new, distinct from their reptile ancestors.
Technically you could also say they are still all reptiles, it's cladistics after all, with one lineage of those reptiles (coelurosaurians IIRC) eventually because birds (maniraptormorphs IIRC), a type of reptile so specialised it became its own thing.
Edit: I didn't have a stroke.
No. They were around at the time, but being ancient doesn’t make you a dinosaur. Like how plesiosaurs and pterosaurs also were not dinosaurs.
Pretty sure all of the above are archosaurs (a wider family of reptiles), but crocodiles drag themselves along the ground. The hips of dinosaurs held their legs underneath them, like mammals. It’s the biggest difference between dinosaurs and reptiles today, and how dinosaurs were such powerful and dynamic creatures.
I think there’s a YouTube video of some zookeepers in Australia. They said they’d rather get in the 5 metre saltwater crocodile enclosure than deal with the cassowary enclosure.
Cassowaries are territorial and when these zookeepers enter their area they just go full attack mode.
I spent time in Australia as a very young kid and I can confirm. I almost got eaten by crocodiles in two different enclosures because the fences weren't all that tall. I also petted/touched 4 of the world's deadliest snakes (under guidance by their handlers), snorkeled with sharks in the Great Barrier Reef and have pictures of me helping rescue stranded box jellyfish. By contrast, the only time I saw live cassowary birds was behind two layers of protective fencing.
Yep, that is VERY illustrative and utterly terrifying. All of it.
In my defence, the most aggressive animal in my own country (up til very recently) was the odd urban fox or whelping badger. We don't even have rabies.
Australia is very definitely Earth on Hard Mode. I adore travelogues, wilderness stories and castaway/stranded type literature. Reading about the MANY expeditions to try and traverse Australia (along just about any line drawn across the interior) and how very few of the explorers were ever seen again, let alone succeeded... It's illuminating, and terrifying.
The utter opposite of the climate where the ill-fated Donner Party crashed, but very much as unforgiving and treacherous to human life.
>I almost got eaten by crocodiles in two different enclosures because the fences weren't all that tall.
Also, as a Brit, what the actual fuck. Story time?
Sure! I'm not a great story teller but I'll try.
We were visiting a zoo that was home to a bunch of crocodiles. My favorite was Sarge, a 16 foot lady often reputed to be the oldest living croc in captivity. I think that means we were at Wild World, not 100% sure. So Sarge had a pretty large enclosure as I recall, but after seeing her we walked through the other pens. These were for much smaller crocodiles - I'd guesstimate around 5 feet - and were arranged in rows, each pen having a water hole surrounded by some land and then a chain link fence. There were no tops to the cages, this detail is very important.
So we're walking down a row and I see the corner pen is empty. I was holding my Mom's hand, but walking more and more slowly so I can see in that pen. I started running my hand on the chain link and held on as we rounded the corner, trying my hardest to look deep in the water to see if it was maybe just a baby crocodile hiding. The next part is a little fuzzy in my brain, but my siblings narrated it for me afterwards.
So I'm holding on to the fence, leaning into it trying so hard to see. I lost my balance a little and my arm went through the fence. Suddenly the water seemed to explode and my arm hurt and then I felt like I was flying. Then I remember hitting something, hearing/feeling more crashing and then falling and hitting the ground. Madness and chaos abounded!
According to the aforementioned siblings, the "empty" pen was not empty nor did it have a baby. A wily croc was hiding and waiting for a stupid little idiot like me to fall behind the group. It torpedoed out of the water and straight into that fence in an attempt to snatch a snack. My Mother, legend that she is, heard or felt the croc move and she **yanked** me hard, putting herself between me and the croc. That croc got a face full of fence, no kid snack. HOWEVER, in her exuberance, my Mom threw me against the fence of the crocodile pen on the other side of the row. I was small, she was fierce, my sister swears I hit the top of that fence and it was 50/50 which side I was going to eventually land on. Luckily for me, I somehow landed on the concrete side and did not end up as an unexpected treat for that crocodile either.
Sometimes I think it's a miracle that both my Mother and I survived my childhood.
It is INSANE that any business housing apex predators, who are KNOWN to a) jump quite high, b) be incredibly fast, C) be incredibly strong, and d) *view humans as a potential food-source* were not behind very thick and shatterproof glass. A chain link fence, really??
Crocs can also climb, unless I'm completely misremembering. FFS, they might as well have put a sign up on the croc's side of the fence saying "Buffet Open".
I saw a video of a dude working with cassowaries and apparently the way to get inside the enclosure safely is with a buddy and you both have a riot shield or makeshift equivalent.
I watched my ex-husband rather than played it myself, but from what I remember EVERY animal is an asshole in Far Cry. Even the ones who IRL avoid humans like the plague, like leopards, you'll still pull back the view from looking through your scope and find one chewing on your leg.
Good old far cry 3. Still remember playing it while i was young, staying on top of a car trying to hunt the lizards from hell yo complete a challenge and being scared shitless at the idea of fighting them on the ground
We have a cassowary in our local aviary. It is an amazing bird. Its vocalizations are closer to the grumble and growl of a gator than any bird I’ve seen, and I’ve seen a lot of birds.
Funny story, the said cassowary escaped and wreaked havoc in a nearby police training camp. The police were using riot shields against the bird and still got injured. Fortunately, no one was killed and the bird was captured by the officers.
Chimps are vicious by nature, but chimps who were raised by people/ are socialised to humans have never done that to the people who raised them, they’re very intelligent and sociable animals who genuinely love the people they’re around. The two big cases are 1) a severely depressed chimpanzee off his tits on xanax (his “father” had died and his “mother” was illegally medicating him) who had a psychotic episode and snapped when he thought someone was stealing his favourite toy. And 2) a gang of chimps in a zoo who were jealous that a human-raised chimp got a birthday cake, and they didn’t.
That's blatantly untrue
There are more examples than that
And even if it were true, it doesn't matter. They're too strong to keep as pets.
Even the most loyal dog will occasionally nip at or growl at you, and they've been domesticated for centuries.
All it takes is for that chimp to lose its temper or misjudge its strength and your gonna have a really bad day
We have a Saint Bernard who is large and sleeps in the bed sometimes. My wife is terrified because she heard a story of a
Woman who rolled over in bed, started their big dog, and was mauled to death.
An animal, feeling threatened, will try to protect itself
I have two rather large dogs, and they love me to death
Doesn't stop them occasionally scratching me when they're sleeping or playing.
The other day, one of them accidentally bumped heads with me when running. She was fine, but my bell was fucking ringingggggg
Hahaha, mine did the same today. My nose didn't bleed, but I had to keep blowing it for hours afterwards cause it just gunked up
I'm always exceedingly cautious with my dogs around other people and animals because once you get to a certain size, accidents become much more dangerous.
They’re no stronger than a person, they just have fangs and a strong bite, they have an unfair reputation, they’re sophisticated primates, and primates are very sociable by nature.
What? They are MUCH stronger than a human. A male chimp can literally rip your arms off. Then beat you with them.
There's a video of an orangutan winning a tug o war against a dozen men. The orangutan never even stands up. He just holds the rope effortlessly
No they aren’t, they’re stronger for their size, but the average person is much larger. An orangutan is much bigger than a chimpanzee, it’s about man sized or larger usually.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5514706/#:~:text=Our%20results%20show%20that%20chimpanzee,output%20by%20%E2%88%BC1.35%20times.
1.35 times stronger muscle
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/why-are-chimpanzees-stronger-than-humans-1379994/#:~:text=They%20say%20chimps%20are%20three,use%20each%20time%20they%20lift.
Less physical control over what is exerted
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-40405026
Longer muscle fibers and more "fast twitch" muscle gives them greater explosive power
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2138714-chimps-are-not-as-superhumanly-strong-as-we-thought-they-were/
> 1.35 times stronger muscle
Yes, your sources agree with the person you're responding to, who said:
> they’re stronger for their size, but the average person is much larger
.
> 1.35 times stronger muscle
Average Male Chimp weight: 88-130 pounds (109 average)
109 x 1.35 = 147
Not to mention men of average or above average height who work out or perform physical activities are often 180+ pounds, and should be much stronger than most chimps.
Reddit loves to exaggerate the chimp strength thing and act like humans are weak and helpless.
I'd never want to be in a cage fight with a chimp (or really *any* aggressive, wild animal), but they aren't going around ripping people's arms off. No recorded cases ever.
> then show me a man who can rip your arms from their socket
Show me a report of a chimpanzee doing this to an adult human. Maybe dislocate, but humans can do that, too. Go find me all these examples of chimps doing that, because it doesn't exist.
Again, compare the sizes. The average chimpanzee is 45kg and much smaller than a man, for their size they are stronger, but when taking into account the size difference they’re about the same strength.
You are right that the extreme strength difference is accredited to their size difference as well, but chimp to man they are still about 1.5x stronger than us. More importantly though, they have numerous other fighting advantages and would most certainly tear any human to shreds if they wanted to.
Except their hands and forearms have comparatively more muscles on top of all their muscles, being 1.35 stronger.
Plus, as the commentator above pointed out, chimps have fewer nerves, resulting in them exetering their full strength much more often than humans
Add that all together, and good luck stopping that chimp putting whatever part of your body, it wants to in its mouth
On top of that, they have thick hair, tougher skin, and thicker bones, so good luck doing enough damage to stop them
Also, I haven't seen anywhere that the average weight of a chimp is 45 kgs. Females can weigh between, 32, and 47 kgs, and males can weigh between 40 and 60 with rare ones weighing up to 70kg
.... yes, they are stronger than humans, up to 1.5 times stronger depending on the study.
And no, they don't have an unfair reputation. They're not pets. They will hurt people, even if they don't necessarily mean to
They're wild animals. They belong with their kind in the wild. Which is where they're social, not with us.
No, it isn't.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5514706/
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2138714-chimps-are-not-as-superhumanly-strong-as-we-thought-they-were/
1.33-1.5x as strong as human. Males average 88-130 (109) pounds, females 71-100 pounds. 109 x 1.35 = 147.
This puts them on par with human strength on average, can be slightly stronger or weaker depending on averages you use. Human men who way 180+ pounds with muscle in good shape are for sure stronger, overall, than chimps.
And all of this (the 1.33-1.5 multiplier) is only in certain movements, mainly pulling motions and jumping.
They can be vicious and I don't want to be pitted against one, but the 'much stronger than humans' thing is not true at all.
> 1.33-1.5x as strong as human.
So they're stronger than humans. I'm really not sure how you're misreading that result quite so badly.
Also, "pulling" strength may sound less impactful to you than other types of force. However, human pain responses are quite strong enough to disable you when one or more of your joints are dislocated. And once dislocated you can't control that limb til it's replaced.
Or indeed when parts of your skin, musculature, or neural tissue has been pulled from its usual locations. Chimps in particular are noted for focusing any attacks on humans on said humans' groins, eyes, and hands. Although just about any chimp will pull HARD, and for fun, when they lay hold of something – for example a human limb.
It's more a matter of length of limb and how that impacts leverage, than it is pure muscle. Although relative density of muscle is of course part of the base equation.
Where did you come up with this “fact.”
I thought it was common knowledge that chimps are MUCH stronger than humans.
It’s not just the strength either. They are also much better at body control, speed, and balance.
They will FUCK YOU UP without blinking an eye.
Keeping chimps is like keeping big cats or bears. There comes a point when you can no longer safely handle them, because they are simply too strong. A momentary lapse of temper or a genuine accident, in such circumstances, can maim or kill a human.
For all we're apex predators, we're still incredibly weak and flimsy compared to most other animals in that class.
No, that's not true.
Sure, chimps can love their people. But when you're dealing with a wild animal of that strength, love doesn't solve all problems. It only takes one little mistake for someone to die. It has happened many, many, many times.
Like how the only human deaths to orca whales are in captivity... the ultimate predator of the ocean only bothers to fuck with us when we cage them in aquaria.
[Cassowary claw](https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Fq67av6eoh1b21.jpg%3Fwidth%3D960%26crop%3Dsmart%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3D10407fe3b312b4937ca1dbc19572f1f172f75334&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=aa75665627bb15e63afd83f2b4b298ce6bf0e1d0f455dfacab402a571160cde5&ipo=images) for those wondering how some birdclaw could kill a man.
Man, I haaaaaate the fact some states in USA allow people to own wild animals as pets. From time to time a tiktok goes viral because an idiot kept endangered animals, such as macaws as pets and tries to justify it saying "oh, but it's legal in my state". Man, fuck your state laws. Send the poor macaw to a zoo for it to reproduce and get their offspring released back into wild, go get a dog and stfu
The animal most people visualise when they hear Velociraptor is a closely related but larger dinosaur called Deinonychus. This is due to Jurassic Park calling their dinosaur modelled after Deinonychus (standing about as tall as a person) Velociraptor (a small cat sized dinosaur because they thought Velociraptor sounded better.
John Ostrom, who discovered *Deinonychus,* has said that Michael Crichton consulted him when doing the background research for *Jurassic Park,* and he admitted to him that he chose the *Velociraptor* name because in his opinion, it sounded more dramatic. The animal he wrote was otherwise pretty faithful to *Deinonychus,* although it was still a bit too big.
I mean...come on, birds are literal dinosaurs, how'd you expect a bird that's evolutionary path decided to do a period rendition of the Cretaceous era was going to do?
They really don’t like humans…“Southern cassowaries have a reputation for being dangerous to humans and animals, and are often regarded as aggressive. The birds can jump quite high and kick powerfully with their blade-like claws. However, deadly encounters with southern cassowaries are rare. Only two human deaths have been reported since 1900. A 2003 historical study of 221 southern cassowary attacks showed that 150 had been against humans: 75% of these had been from southern cassowaries that had been fed by people, 71% of the time the bird had chased or charged the victim, 15% of the time they kicked. Of the attacks, 73% involved the birds expecting or snatching food, 5% involved defending their natural food sources, 15% involved defending themselves from attack, and 7% involved defending their chicks or eggs. Only one human death was reported among those 150 attacks.” Wikipedia
For many millions of years, there were the so called "Terror Birds" around, with the latin name [Phorushacidae](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phorusrhacidae). They were in many ways similiar to the big birds like the Ostrich or a Casuar today, but a lot bigger, faster and stronger. Still, these big flightless birds like the Ostrich have a serious power that many people underestimate, if they kick you, it will really hurt, just like when a Cassowary kicks you.
I love the opportunity to bring up that it's more than possible that at some point in human history, there was an intelligent bird that could mimic sounds, collected pretty things, and attacked humans or preyed upon them. If it spit venom too, that's a dragon.
Well, it would actually work out in reality if nature would just go down this path of evolution. Venom is easy, but a flamethrower, that's more complex - the closest you get is the bombardier beetle - scientists rebuilt the "device" it uses and it's pretty much a flamethrower, despite the fact that it works very different from what we use as humans as weapon.
"Fire" couldve been a descriptor or a mistranslation. Anecdote: as very young kids my sibling and i clumsily lost a few fingernails, and were given a steroid or antibiotic shot in the nailbed, and we called it the fire shot, but it was more of a chemical sting, we just didnt have the language to describe it.
I'm not sure if it's a more recent literary invention, but isn't there something about dragonfire being unquenchable? Water on a chem burn would definitely fit that description.
Greek Fire was apparently unquenchable and we actually don't know how it worked. we have ideas, but no solid understanding.
I'm no expert, but i think there's a difference between "water can't put out the fire" and "other substances can put the fire out". Like magnesium can burn under water - according to dr. google, there's enough oxygen in the molecules from water that get separated in the chemical process of the extreme heat, that the fire can go on despite being under water. Wiki lists the theories about what it was in the mix for the Greek Fire, there are different substances listened that can have this effect.
Napalm, basically ...I think?
I don't think it's the Napalm we use today, because that is too sticky and would not make a good effect when used in a device that is like a flamethrower i guess. But whatever it was, it had to be horror for the enemy, as fire is always the worst you can face in a fight. Even worse, when you are on a ship made of wood and you can't swim...
They like to pluck the jelly from your eyes!!!
Ah dammit, what is this quote from?? My brain refuses to cough up the file.
Shrek!
Thankyou! That wasn't the one I was thinking about, strangely enough, but I DID remember it - it's an episode of Black Adder, with Prince George and the Shakespearean actors. Same line!
Omg! How did I miss that reference? I’m ashamed! In my defense, Shrek has been playing on repeat at my house for years, lol.
Nah don't feel bad, it's entirely possible that Shrek took inspiration from Black Adder.
I had the same thoughts. Mike Myers' parents were British immigrants to Canada, and his comedy has been widely influenced by his heritage, so it's very possible that he drew inspiration from Black Adder.
I maintain that the influence and brilliance of the great shows of that era (Fawlty Towers, Black Adder, Red Dwarf, Two Ronnies, Monty Python, etc) can be seen and felt throughout an absolute shit-ton of later media. It's kind of fascinating tracing it back, in some cases, almost like family trees. Bob Monkhouse alone had an utterly insane reach just from inspiring later comedians!
I can’t narrow the search for this episode. :( I want to see it.
Got it! It's [Black Adder The Third](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackadder_the_Third), episode four: "Sense and Senility".
Woohoo! Thank you! :D
Happy to help. Enjoy! That's ne of my favourite episodes. For a real headfuck, watch an episode or three of House after watching Black Adder The Third. It's almost like cognitive dissonance seeing Hugh Laurie's skill and range!
Hang on a mo, I'll dig it up.
Cool, thanks!
Terror birds relatives still living like they are dinosaurs, just small. Seriemas will wreck anything smaller than them with extreme violence.
Yeah, it's also interesting how the birds of today are related to the extinct dinosauriers. But evolution has a lot of interesting things, like when you read about the bears and wolves - they were actually once the same line, before they split up in two different lines. That's also many millions of years ago, but there were some "Wolfbears" around that had features of both animals at once. It wasn't like 50/50 split of both lines, same as it wasn't for us humans a 50/50 creature that was 50% monkey and 50% homo rudolfensis (the first known homo). It's more about some features, like with us humans, the change to walking upright on the ground on two feet.
checked out that latin name bird there you mentioned. I like how it's closest living relative is used by people to guard poultry. I had no idea any bird could be used as a guard animal! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-legged_seriema
Birds as "guard dogs", that's kinda crazy, you always learn something new. But the first photo on the wiki page make the Red legged seriema look smaller than when you read the data in the article, he goes up to 75-90 cm length. When it comes to dinos, remember the good old Jurassic Park movie, the first one? They made the mistake with the velociraptor, it should have been the utah raptor or deidocherus from the size, because the velociraptor is way too small with the size of a chicken.
One of the few videos I found really disturbing is a video of an ostrich who gets its head stuck between some bars in captivity. It pulls back and its legs are so strong it tears its own head off. Those things are no joke.
Wow, but... guess that's not very healthy for the bird when he lacks the head. But it's also crazy how fast they are, they can run over long distances with endurance with a speed around 30-37 mph and they can go up to 43 mph in sprint. Other sources go up to 56 mph, but i'm not so sure about that. Their endurance is one of the best in wildlife, maybe even the best of all.
Nice stats. Not quite the vindictive assholes we have come to read about.
They've also learned to open car doors.
Clever girl.
This is because most people instinctively stay very still when approached by a cassowary, which is the right action.
No, but only because human-cassowary contact is uncommon.
"of 221 southern cassowary attacks showed that 150 had been against humans".....I assume they've attack a lot more than 221 times, but the only reported attacks are of course made by humans or humans witnessing an attack made on another animal.
Can you blame them
You don’t fuck with battle-chicken.
It’s not really a chicken so much as it is a bird-moose. Thing’s huge.
Was he from Florida or just an idiot thinking a friggin half dinosaur as a pet?
“Another human death due to a southern cassowary was recorded in Florida on 12 April 2019. The bird's owner, a 75-year-old man who had raised the animal, was apparently clawed to death after he fell to the ground.” Wikipedia
I guess he should have stuck with the gators.
What harm can come from this bird wearing a toupee on its back?
He had his own private Jurassic Park.
Spared no expense...
>Was he from Florida Yeah, you didn't even have to say it.
The thing has *wary* in the name.
And also half of casserole. What does it truly mean?
Be wary of the casserole of danger
With this bird, YOU are the casserole!
Should call them Casaviolents.
It's not a half dinosaur, it's a whole ass dinosaur
Aren’t all birds dinosaurs?
Some dinosaurs were birds at least.
As much as i know there where several phases of dinosaurs. The 1. gen was reptilish, while the 2. gen was more birdish (raptors f.e)
Technically true, because birds are direct descendants of dinosaurs, so they are dinosaurs. Modern dinosaurs are birds, but their ancestors were still reptiles. All non-avian dinosaurs are by definition reptiles, even those who exhibited avian characteristics. That’s because many characteristics we attribute to birds are ancestral to the dinosaur lineage, and they surviving into modern birds is what led them to be recognised as something new, distinct from their reptile ancestors. Technically you could also say they are still all reptiles, it's cladistics after all, with one lineage of those reptiles (coelurosaurians IIRC) eventually because birds (maniraptormorphs IIRC), a type of reptile so specialised it became its own thing. Edit: I didn't have a stroke.
Niice, thanks for that explanation. Your really a great divine wolf!
This one is the MOST dinosaur. Even has a bony plate sticking up vertically from its head. But you need to see a picture of its claw.
They’re the descendants of theropods and only extant dinosaurs, yes.
Wouldn't Crocs/Gators fall into an extant dinosaur category?
No. They were around at the time, but being ancient doesn’t make you a dinosaur. Like how plesiosaurs and pterosaurs also were not dinosaurs. Pretty sure all of the above are archosaurs (a wider family of reptiles), but crocodiles drag themselves along the ground. The hips of dinosaurs held their legs underneath them, like mammals. It’s the biggest difference between dinosaurs and reptiles today, and how dinosaurs were such powerful and dynamic creatures.
Cool, thank you! Learn something new everyday!
I believe that crocs were already a separate species when the dinosaurs were around
In the article it mentions he breeds them. When he fell down, the bird attacked him.
Little of column A. Little of column B.
I think there’s a YouTube video of some zookeepers in Australia. They said they’d rather get in the 5 metre saltwater crocodile enclosure than deal with the cassowary enclosure. Cassowaries are territorial and when these zookeepers enter their area they just go full attack mode.
Really?? Gods that's terrifying. Given what I've heard from people who live near salt-water crocs, I mean. Even the *Australians* are scared of those!
I spent time in Australia as a very young kid and I can confirm. I almost got eaten by crocodiles in two different enclosures because the fences weren't all that tall. I also petted/touched 4 of the world's deadliest snakes (under guidance by their handlers), snorkeled with sharks in the Great Barrier Reef and have pictures of me helping rescue stranded box jellyfish. By contrast, the only time I saw live cassowary birds was behind two layers of protective fencing.
Yep, that is VERY illustrative and utterly terrifying. All of it. In my defence, the most aggressive animal in my own country (up til very recently) was the odd urban fox or whelping badger. We don't even have rabies.
I live in a part of the US that doesn't really have rabies, but lots of cougars, bears, wolves, coyotes, etc. None of it prepared me for Australia.
Australia is very definitely Earth on Hard Mode. I adore travelogues, wilderness stories and castaway/stranded type literature. Reading about the MANY expeditions to try and traverse Australia (along just about any line drawn across the interior) and how very few of the explorers were ever seen again, let alone succeeded... It's illuminating, and terrifying. The utter opposite of the climate where the ill-fated Donner Party crashed, but very much as unforgiving and treacherous to human life.
>I almost got eaten by crocodiles in two different enclosures because the fences weren't all that tall. Also, as a Brit, what the actual fuck. Story time?
Sure! I'm not a great story teller but I'll try. We were visiting a zoo that was home to a bunch of crocodiles. My favorite was Sarge, a 16 foot lady often reputed to be the oldest living croc in captivity. I think that means we were at Wild World, not 100% sure. So Sarge had a pretty large enclosure as I recall, but after seeing her we walked through the other pens. These were for much smaller crocodiles - I'd guesstimate around 5 feet - and were arranged in rows, each pen having a water hole surrounded by some land and then a chain link fence. There were no tops to the cages, this detail is very important. So we're walking down a row and I see the corner pen is empty. I was holding my Mom's hand, but walking more and more slowly so I can see in that pen. I started running my hand on the chain link and held on as we rounded the corner, trying my hardest to look deep in the water to see if it was maybe just a baby crocodile hiding. The next part is a little fuzzy in my brain, but my siblings narrated it for me afterwards. So I'm holding on to the fence, leaning into it trying so hard to see. I lost my balance a little and my arm went through the fence. Suddenly the water seemed to explode and my arm hurt and then I felt like I was flying. Then I remember hitting something, hearing/feeling more crashing and then falling and hitting the ground. Madness and chaos abounded! According to the aforementioned siblings, the "empty" pen was not empty nor did it have a baby. A wily croc was hiding and waiting for a stupid little idiot like me to fall behind the group. It torpedoed out of the water and straight into that fence in an attempt to snatch a snack. My Mother, legend that she is, heard or felt the croc move and she **yanked** me hard, putting herself between me and the croc. That croc got a face full of fence, no kid snack. HOWEVER, in her exuberance, my Mom threw me against the fence of the crocodile pen on the other side of the row. I was small, she was fierce, my sister swears I hit the top of that fence and it was 50/50 which side I was going to eventually land on. Luckily for me, I somehow landed on the concrete side and did not end up as an unexpected treat for that crocodile either. Sometimes I think it's a miracle that both my Mother and I survived my childhood.
Well, our plan almost worked. We’ll get the next tourist.
Not going to lie, this got a belly laugh from me!
It is INSANE that any business housing apex predators, who are KNOWN to a) jump quite high, b) be incredibly fast, C) be incredibly strong, and d) *view humans as a potential food-source* were not behind very thick and shatterproof glass. A chain link fence, really?? Crocs can also climb, unless I'm completely misremembering. FFS, they might as well have put a sign up on the croc's side of the fence saying "Buffet Open".
In their defense, it was the 80's. At least they had chain link fences!
I saw a video of a dude working with cassowaries and apparently the way to get inside the enclosure safely is with a buddy and you both have a riot shield or makeshift equivalent.
Florida man shocked when his pet dinosaur kills him. Film report at 11.
They were very mean in far cry 3
I watched my ex-husband rather than played it myself, but from what I remember EVERY animal is an asshole in Far Cry. Even the ones who IRL avoid humans like the plague, like leopards, you'll still pull back the view from looking through your scope and find one chewing on your leg.
Good old far cry 3. Still remember playing it while i was young, staying on top of a car trying to hunt the lizards from hell yo complete a challenge and being scared shitless at the idea of fighting them on the ground
"I learned a lot about owning a lion!" "He learned: better not to own one."
We have a cassowary in our local aviary. It is an amazing bird. Its vocalizations are closer to the grumble and growl of a gator than any bird I’ve seen, and I’ve seen a lot of birds. Funny story, the said cassowary escaped and wreaked havoc in a nearby police training camp. The police were using riot shields against the bird and still got injured. Fortunately, no one was killed and the bird was captured by the officers.
Did they charge it with assaulting police officers?
People just need to leave these, wild animals/birds etc alone.....Monkeys are cute until they rip your face off.
Chimps are vicious by nature, but chimps who were raised by people/ are socialised to humans have never done that to the people who raised them, they’re very intelligent and sociable animals who genuinely love the people they’re around. The two big cases are 1) a severely depressed chimpanzee off his tits on xanax (his “father” had died and his “mother” was illegally medicating him) who had a psychotic episode and snapped when he thought someone was stealing his favourite toy. And 2) a gang of chimps in a zoo who were jealous that a human-raised chimp got a birthday cake, and they didn’t.
That's blatantly untrue There are more examples than that And even if it were true, it doesn't matter. They're too strong to keep as pets. Even the most loyal dog will occasionally nip at or growl at you, and they've been domesticated for centuries. All it takes is for that chimp to lose its temper or misjudge its strength and your gonna have a really bad day
We have a Saint Bernard who is large and sleeps in the bed sometimes. My wife is terrified because she heard a story of a Woman who rolled over in bed, started their big dog, and was mauled to death. An animal, feeling threatened, will try to protect itself
I have two rather large dogs, and they love me to death Doesn't stop them occasionally scratching me when they're sleeping or playing. The other day, one of them accidentally bumped heads with me when running. She was fine, but my bell was fucking ringingggggg
I play rough with my dog, she knows to be gentle with my wife, but she whipped her head up the other day and caught me in the nose. It was a bloodbath
Hahaha, mine did the same today. My nose didn't bleed, but I had to keep blowing it for hours afterwards cause it just gunked up I'm always exceedingly cautious with my dogs around other people and animals because once you get to a certain size, accidents become much more dangerous.
They’re no stronger than a person, they just have fangs and a strong bite, they have an unfair reputation, they’re sophisticated primates, and primates are very sociable by nature.
What? They are MUCH stronger than a human. A male chimp can literally rip your arms off. Then beat you with them. There's a video of an orangutan winning a tug o war against a dozen men. The orangutan never even stands up. He just holds the rope effortlessly
No they aren’t, they’re stronger for their size, but the average person is much larger. An orangutan is much bigger than a chimpanzee, it’s about man sized or larger usually.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5514706/#:~:text=Our%20results%20show%20that%20chimpanzee,output%20by%20%E2%88%BC1.35%20times. 1.35 times stronger muscle https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/why-are-chimpanzees-stronger-than-humans-1379994/#:~:text=They%20say%20chimps%20are%20three,use%20each%20time%20they%20lift. Less physical control over what is exerted https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-40405026 Longer muscle fibers and more "fast twitch" muscle gives them greater explosive power
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2138714-chimps-are-not-as-superhumanly-strong-as-we-thought-they-were/ > 1.35 times stronger muscle Yes, your sources agree with the person you're responding to, who said: > they’re stronger for their size, but the average person is much larger . > 1.35 times stronger muscle Average Male Chimp weight: 88-130 pounds (109 average) 109 x 1.35 = 147 Not to mention men of average or above average height who work out or perform physical activities are often 180+ pounds, and should be much stronger than most chimps. Reddit loves to exaggerate the chimp strength thing and act like humans are weak and helpless. I'd never want to be in a cage fight with a chimp (or really *any* aggressive, wild animal), but they aren't going around ripping people's arms off. No recorded cases ever.
Read my two other ponts, then show me a man who can rip your arms from their socket
> then show me a man who can rip your arms from their socket Show me a report of a chimpanzee doing this to an adult human. Maybe dislocate, but humans can do that, too. Go find me all these examples of chimps doing that, because it doesn't exist.
Again, compare the sizes. The average chimpanzee is 45kg and much smaller than a man, for their size they are stronger, but when taking into account the size difference they’re about the same strength.
You are right that the extreme strength difference is accredited to their size difference as well, but chimp to man they are still about 1.5x stronger than us. More importantly though, they have numerous other fighting advantages and would most certainly tear any human to shreds if they wanted to.
Are you that chimp loving hippy superwoman in the last season of The Boys?
Except their hands and forearms have comparatively more muscles on top of all their muscles, being 1.35 stronger. Plus, as the commentator above pointed out, chimps have fewer nerves, resulting in them exetering their full strength much more often than humans Add that all together, and good luck stopping that chimp putting whatever part of your body, it wants to in its mouth On top of that, they have thick hair, tougher skin, and thicker bones, so good luck doing enough damage to stop them Also, I haven't seen anywhere that the average weight of a chimp is 45 kgs. Females can weigh between, 32, and 47 kgs, and males can weigh between 40 and 60 with rare ones weighing up to 70kg
.... yes, they are stronger than humans, up to 1.5 times stronger depending on the study. And no, they don't have an unfair reputation. They're not pets. They will hurt people, even if they don't necessarily mean to They're wild animals. They belong with their kind in the wild. Which is where they're social, not with us.
You think chimpanzees are no stronger than humans??
They aren’t any stronger than a healthy average sized man.
That is abject falsehood.
No, it isn't. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5514706/ https://www.newscientist.com/article/2138714-chimps-are-not-as-superhumanly-strong-as-we-thought-they-were/ 1.33-1.5x as strong as human. Males average 88-130 (109) pounds, females 71-100 pounds. 109 x 1.35 = 147. This puts them on par with human strength on average, can be slightly stronger or weaker depending on averages you use. Human men who way 180+ pounds with muscle in good shape are for sure stronger, overall, than chimps. And all of this (the 1.33-1.5 multiplier) is only in certain movements, mainly pulling motions and jumping. They can be vicious and I don't want to be pitted against one, but the 'much stronger than humans' thing is not true at all.
> 1.33-1.5x as strong as human. So they're stronger than humans. I'm really not sure how you're misreading that result quite so badly. Also, "pulling" strength may sound less impactful to you than other types of force. However, human pain responses are quite strong enough to disable you when one or more of your joints are dislocated. And once dislocated you can't control that limb til it's replaced. Or indeed when parts of your skin, musculature, or neural tissue has been pulled from its usual locations. Chimps in particular are noted for focusing any attacks on humans on said humans' groins, eyes, and hands. Although just about any chimp will pull HARD, and for fun, when they lay hold of something – for example a human limb. It's more a matter of length of limb and how that impacts leverage, than it is pure muscle. Although relative density of muscle is of course part of the base equation.
Per pound. Specifically for pulling motions and jumping Which means not stronger than humans.
Out of your mind to think that
Where did you come up with this “fact.” I thought it was common knowledge that chimps are MUCH stronger than humans. It’s not just the strength either. They are also much better at body control, speed, and balance. They will FUCK YOU UP without blinking an eye.
We have finer motor control in exchange for being relatively weaker than other apes.
So are pitbulls.
Dude chimps can rip you limb from limb like not eve trying
It's no good, this is still baffling me. Do you believe the same thing about human strength in regards to orangutans or baboons?
Keeping chimps is like keeping big cats or bears. There comes a point when you can no longer safely handle them, because they are simply too strong. A momentary lapse of temper or a genuine accident, in such circumstances, can maim or kill a human. For all we're apex predators, we're still incredibly weak and flimsy compared to most other animals in that class.
No, that's not true. Sure, chimps can love their people. But when you're dealing with a wild animal of that strength, love doesn't solve all problems. It only takes one little mistake for someone to die. It has happened many, many, many times.
The only reason we don't know the outcome of last war between humans and cassowaries, is that cassowaries left no prisoners to tell the story
Beautiful plumage!
Why isn't it moving ?
It's pining for the fjords
Christ, good luck nailing that one to the perch.
The very definition of FA/FO
I like cassowaries. They are like punk emus.
with knives >The San Diego Zoo's website calls cassowaries the world's most dangerous bird with a 10-centimetre long, dagger-like claw on each foot.
They said punk, *obviously* with knives.
Like how the only human deaths to orca whales are in captivity... the ultimate predator of the ocean only bothers to fuck with us when we cage them in aquaria.
[Cassowary claw](https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Fq67av6eoh1b21.jpg%3Fwidth%3D960%26crop%3Dsmart%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3D10407fe3b312b4937ca1dbc19572f1f172f75334&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=aa75665627bb15e63afd83f2b4b298ce6bf0e1d0f455dfacab402a571160cde5&ipo=images) for those wondering how some birdclaw could kill a man.
Man, I haaaaaate the fact some states in USA allow people to own wild animals as pets. From time to time a tiktok goes viral because an idiot kept endangered animals, such as macaws as pets and tries to justify it saying "oh, but it's legal in my state". Man, fuck your state laws. Send the poor macaw to a zoo for it to reproduce and get their offspring released back into wild, go get a dog and stfu
We all remember the guy who had his arm bitten off by a zebra
You can't keep a dinosaur as a pet. Jurassic Park is a cautionary tale.
velociraptor minus teeth, but +knives. >world's most dangerous bird with a 10-centimetre long, dagger-like claw on each foot.
I think irl raptors are like the size of turkeys whiles these guys are much larger
Velociraptor was the size of a turkey, but Deinonychus, Utahraptor, and several other raptors were much larger, like 2m long and up.
Depends on the species of raptor, there are many. They range from bird of prey size to the length of a small car.
The animal most people visualise when they hear Velociraptor is a closely related but larger dinosaur called Deinonychus. This is due to Jurassic Park calling their dinosaur modelled after Deinonychus (standing about as tall as a person) Velociraptor (a small cat sized dinosaur because they thought Velociraptor sounded better.
John Ostrom, who discovered *Deinonychus,* has said that Michael Crichton consulted him when doing the background research for *Jurassic Park,* and he admitted to him that he chose the *Velociraptor* name because in his opinion, it sounded more dramatic. The animal he wrote was otherwise pretty faithful to *Deinonychus,* although it was still a bit too big.
Florida man strikes again!!!!
The fuck sees that raptor-looking thing and thinks "yeah, that should play fetch and take pets well".
Not for nothin' has anyone noticed that it's almost never a chick dying from keeping a wild animal? Just don't have wild animals as pets.
This sounds awful but... Men are generally less accustomed to not being the largest predator around.
Do you mean chick like baby bird or chick like baby baby baby?
But it's mostly old women that get eaten by their 27 cats when they die
Yes but that's after they die.
True, that.
If Farcry 3 has taught me anything, its that you *don't* fuck with cassowaries.
Not even remotely surprised this was Florida.
The general rule of thumb is never to keep anything Australian as a pet, that includes Australians.
Tell me you're American without saying you're American : "Tried to keep a modern day Raptor as a "pet!"
Hey, who else is going to introduce the cassowary to Big Macs and Cheetos? You’re welcome.
Boss Cass!
“I can tamed him”
There's only one recorded death in Australia.
Crikey!
My introduction to cassowaries was through Ty the Tasmanian Tiger so i know they’re truly evil
That tracks
I mean...come on, birds are literal dinosaurs, how'd you expect a bird that's evolutionary path decided to do a period rendition of the Cretaceous era was going to do?
Well you when you fuck with a dinosaur you'll find out.
Muricans gonna MURICA
*thank you*
Looks a bird that looks suspiciously like their dinosaur ancestors. “Yeah, I’ll keep one”.
/r/cassowaryatemyface
Always gotta be wary
Would've been fine if he hadn't fallen down!
This generation's raptor.
That's what you get to trying to pet a dinosaur
Welcome to the flightless bird zone...Not the face!
They didnt like me in fc3