searching for Single Wattled Cassowary

C

casuarius

Member
I am trying to find help and hopefully contacts in my search to purchase some single wattled cassowaries, or possibly even dwarfs. My friend and I have a female single wattled, and cannot find a mate for her anywhere. I am interested in buying chicks or eggs to ship to the US. I have years of experience with double wattles. If anyone can help, please let me know. You can contact me at my email:
casuarius81@yahoo.com
 
How many of these animals ever came out of PNG? At the moment, as far as i know there are only two males in Europe... Does anyone know of any in the USA? ISIS lists none...
 
Avilon zoo in the Philippines has at least one bird.
Jurong had one.
Jakarta and Surabaya each have several I think, but they would be very difficult to import.
 
as far as I know you can get a permit to export eggs from their country easier than live birds.
 
My friend has one here in the US, shes a 19 yr old female that has been over here all her life. We havent been able to trace back to where she came from...we just know she came here with 4 or 5 others 20 yrs ago or so and the importation was seized by the gov for some reason. The rest all died and she ended up in the hands of Richard Rundel in california whom was until recently one of the worlds most famous cassowary breeders. He sold out, and my friend got the single wattle. There are very few of these listed on ISIS, and in zoos or parks period. I tried walsrode without any success. The others you all mentioned I have tried to contact, but never recieve any replies. Thanks for all your information thus far however. Is it even at all possible to take these birds out of new guinea? Keeping it illegal to export them from their country will probably be these birds doom in the years to come. They say there are around 40 left in the wild of australia, and in the near future new guineas cassowaries will probably be placed on the endangered list as well, and the worse part is the only ones with any kind of footing in captivity are the double wattles, and there are supposedly only around 30-40 of those in the US. If there can be any located for purchase or to be exported, then we are willing to do what we can to get them over here. As always, the biggest problem with importing them is getting them through our governments 30 day quarantine stations.
 
Eggs are my biggest interest, they would be cheaper and far easier to ship. They require no quarantine in the US like live birds. I have never shipped eggs from so far, and if it could be done, I suppose the trouble would be getting them here intact and safe. I have raised double wattles for 10 yrs with decent success, I have always done well hatching the eggs in incubators if they are fertile. The best bet would be to get a hold of a few dozen to ship to increase the odds of success.
 
isnt she too old to breed at 19? she is possibly older if her history is unknown. I think it is illeagal to export live birds from their native country but you could export eggs to a neighbouring country, hatch them there and then export the chicks. Are you a private breeder? how many cassowary do you rear per year? the pictures are beautiful, one of my favorite ratites. could you possibly loan her to a collection that has a male and maybe split the clutch?
 
19 is young for a cassowary, they live 60+ yrs. Also, until they reach this age I wouldnt consider them a good experienced breeder, all of my breeding stock is this age and older. Even though they reach maturity at 4-5 yrs, they dont do well usually producing fertile eggs. I have one male that has just turned 7 and he still cant figure which end to mate with...I have yet to get a fertile egg from him, He finally did it right this yr, and im hoping to get some chicks from him however. Last 2 yrs I havent had the time to work with them so I havent hatched any chicks in a while. Before that I hatched a few each yr. Sadly most people are irresponsible, and a good number of birds i've sold to people in the past died, so im very picky about who I sell to now. The last pair I sold was to the Nashville Zoo in Tennessee a few yrs back. As far as the single wattle female, my friend owns her, and loaning would be up to him. The problem is finding someone to pair with, the nearest single wattles to the u.s. is walsrode vogel park, I've talked with them and they seem to want to stick to themselves, not to mention exporting a adult bird out of the country or into the country is near impossible and very risky.
 
casuarius said:
19 is young for a cassowary, they live 60+ yrs. Also, until they reach this age I wouldnt consider them a good experienced breeder, all of my breeding stock is this age and older. Even though they reach maturity at 4-5 yrs, they dont do well usually producing fertile eggs. I have one male that has just turned 7 and he still cant figure which end to mate with...I have yet to get a fertile egg from him, He finally did it right this yr, and im hoping to get some chicks from him however. Last 2 yrs I havent had the time to work with them so I havent hatched any chicks in a while. Before that I hatched a few each yr. Sadly most people are irresponsible, and a good number of birds i've sold to people in the past died, so im very picky about who I sell to now. The last pair I sold was to the Nashville Zoo in Tennessee a few yrs back. As far as the single wattle female, my friend owns her, and loaning would be up to him. The problem is finding someone to pair with, the nearest single wattles to the u.s. is walsrode vogel park, I've talked with them and they seem to want to stick to themselves, not to mention exporting a adult bird out of the country or into the country is near impossible and very risky.
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I do not know your experience with our official zoo administered captive-breeding programmes is. I am convinced - well it is face value of the information you have provided - that you are pretty serious about your birds.

For starters, just talking to staff members (zoo keepers or curators) at a zoo will just not cut it. If you are serious, you should contact the regional Ratite TAG's first and work through them. Secondly, you would probably have to declare your serious interest in their conservation and captive breeding plus - if that can be accomodated - became a partner in the respective breeding network. Thirdly, you should have to refrain from purchasing birds from questionable sources (cassowaries are freely traded in SE-Asian archipelago and I have seen them turned up trumps at several locations where I least expected them). In SEAZA zoos 2 zoos maintain the taxon Casuarius unappendiculatus and I personally know of a 4th in this region (not a member of SEAZA). Fourthly, if you wish to breed and your female bird is 19, it obviously is NO HELP to import eggs as it will take another 7-8 years for any male hatched bird to reach sexual maturity ... that is 7-8 years of breeding potential down the drain.

You describe that as an aviculturalist you are keeping and breeding cassowaries. Some statistical questions here.

A) Do you just maintain C. casuarius or the third taxon C. bennetti too?
B) What are your breeding successes over the last decade?
C) Does your facility maintain other bird families or is it solely devoted to ratites?
 
I agree, buying chicks or eggs would take some time to have any kind of results out of, but you can only take what you can get in certain situations. As far as I know, there is not possible way unless by boat to get an adult cassowary over the seas. I dont even know of anyone that will ship one air freight in the US. But again, im weighing out all my options, and just obtaining information to work on at present. I only keep C. Casuarius, unappendiculatus and bennetti are no where to be found in the US other than this one. I have always had good success with double wattles when I have the time to work with them, having a full time job holds me back in alot of ways...if I could strictly work with my birds I would, but they dont pay the bills. I have years of experience with Rhea's and Emu's as well. Other than ratites, I have raised many types of Galliformes, and many types of psittacines. Thanks for your information
 
I was just at the Bali Bird Park today and they have two single-wattled cassowaries, I presume male and female (in separate pens)
 
I have talked to Bali bird park about their birds. They do have a pair, but wont even attempt to breed them because they are afraid they may fight. I dont understand why you would want a pair if you dont intend on breeding them, someone needs to start breeding them before its too late.
 
casuarius said:
I have talked to Bali bird park about their birds. They do have a pair, but wont even attempt to breed them because they are afraid they may fight. I dont understand why you would want a pair if you dont intend on breeding them, someone needs to start breeding them before its too late.
Click to expand...

I agree fully, it seems a waste of space. It is however indicative how some zoo traditions at another stage of development are content to just exhibit and not take in the latest technologies or developments in cassowary management to heart.

Another facility that might have your species are Malabon Zoo. If my memory serves me correctly the Malabon Zoo had all 3 species on exhibit (and where breeding at least the double-wattled) and individual pens for breeding birds (as well as several enclosures for single non breeding birds or offspring).

But well, you would know all that as an avid aviculturalist already!
 
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