Why the World’s Deadliest Bird Keeps Breaking Into People’s Houses
Sometimes, to be cruel is to be kind.
Living in Australia comes with some caveats, such as the constant threat of being burgled by the world’s deadliest bird.
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.
After the Department of Environment and Heritage Protection (EHP) removed the bird, they published a statement urging residents to not feed wild cassowaries. According to the agency, Ruthie has since been relocated to a remote area where she’s unlikely to encounter humans.
“It is always preferable to leave a cassowary in its home range,” the EHP said. “But in this instance the proximity to homes meant the risk of future attacks was considered unacceptably high.”
Only one week prior, the EHP was called in to wrangle yet another cassowary in northern Queensland. A male cassowary, who was described as a “regular visitor” to the town of Tully, attacked a man, leaving him a bit bruised and battered. The animal was later released into Wooroonooran National Park