Casuarius
Southern Cassowary (Casuarius casuarius)
The range of this species extends throughout the lowlands of New Guinea and into the Aru Islands and northeast Australia; a presumably-introduced population exists on Seram.
The taxonomy of this species requires further work and analysis; it is currently defined as monotypic, but Perron (2016) suggested that five subspecies may be valid as follows:
C. c. casuarius - contains
C. c. casuarius, C. c. beccari and
C. c. salvadori
C. c. galeatus - contains
C. c. galeatus, C. c. bicarunculatus and
C. c. intermedius
Photo by
@fkalltheway
C. c. aruensis - contains
C. c. aruensis and
C. c. chimaera
Photo by
@molinea
C. c. johnsonii - contains
C. c. johnsonii, C. c. australis and
C. c. hamiltoni
Photo by
@WhistlingKite24
C. c. sclaterii (Salvadori 1878) - contains
C. c. sclaterii, C. c. tricarunculatus, C. c. altijugus, C. c. violicollis, C. c. intensus, C. c. bistriatus, C. c. lateralis and
C. c. grandis
Another described taxon,
C. c. hagenbecki, was found by Perron to be a naturally-occurring hybrid between
C. casuarius and
C. unappendiculatus.
Dwarf Cassowary (Casuarius bennetti)
The range of this species extends throughout the highlands of New Guinea into the Vogelkop Peninsula; an introduced population exists on New Britain.
The taxonomy of this species requires further work and analysis; it is currently defined as comprising two subspecies (
bennetti and
westermannii) but Perron (2016) suggested that four four distinct genetic/morphological groups are involved, with further genetic data required to demonstrate how many valid subspecies are involved. However, preliminary mDNA findings suggest the first of these groups differs to a significant degree, and probably merits full species status.
Group 1 (Birds Head / Westermanni complex) - contains the following subspecies:
C. b. westermanni, C. b. edwardsi, C. b. rogersi, C. b. goodfellowi. As noted above further research may demonstrate this group merits recognition as a distinct species,
Casuarius westermanni.
Photo by
@Tomek
Group 2 (Bennetti / Hecki complex) - contains the following subspecies:
C. b. bennetti, C. b. maculatus, C. b. hecki and C. b. picticollis
Photo by
@Tomek
Group 3 (Papuanus complex) - contains the following subspecies:
C. b. papuanus, C. b. foersteri, C. b. claudii and C. b. shawmayeri
Photo by
@Birdkeeper
Group 4 (Loriae complex) - contains the following subspecies:
C. b. loriae, C. b. keysseri and C. b. roseigularus
Photo by
@alexkant
Another described taxon,
C. b. jamrachi, is suggested to be a naturally-occurring hybrid between
C. casuarius and
C. unappendiculatus due to extreme similarities to juveniles of the aforementioned
C. c. hagenbecki.
Northern Cassowary (
Casuarius unappendiculatus)
The range of this species extends from the western Papuan islands into north and west New Guinea.
Currently classified as monotypic; Perron (2016) agrees with this point, suggesting that *all* described subspecies assigned to this species comprise clinal variation from base yellow in the west to deep red in the west. This cline covers the following classically-recognised subspecies in order from west to east:
unappendiculatus, kaupi, occipitalis, aurantiacus, rothschildi, mitratus, doggetti, suffusus, philipi, multicolor and
rufotinctus
Photo by
@alexkant depicting "auranticus"
Photo by
@Tomek depicting "rufotinctus"
C. u. laglaizei is considered to be an aberrant individual and/or deliberate fraud through bleaching of the holotype, and as such is not included in the above cline.
and, indeed, finished my run through the various orders, families, genera and species of ratite!
