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Re: Cassowary attack videos

Watching those videos made me want to see that bird eviscerate those guys. After watching more of their antics it made me wonder what kind of omnipotent being lets them live and decides to take Steve Irwin's life. I'd like to propose a documentary style Wildboyz meets Prehistoric Park. Now thats edutainment.

  David Krentz
On Jan 9, 2007, at 9:26 AM, Chris Glen wrote:

I was amused by the comment "that's one mean turkey" or something like that
on the site.

Yes, easily amused and distracted - it's the definition of a phd student.
Still is interesting to see the action, hard to visualise when reading the
accounts. Here's some refs (I think they may have been mentioned on DML
recently?)

Kofron, Christopher P. Case histories of attacks by the Southern Cassowary
in Queensland. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 49 (1): 339-342 30 June,
2003

Kofron, C. P. (1999). Attacks to humans and domestic animals by the southern
cassowary (Casuarius casuarius johnsonii) in Queensland, Australia. Journal
of Zoology (London). 249: 375-381.



...Back to the thesis (mental image of Captain Ahab roped to the rolling
back of a great white whale screaming "Die evil devil fish!", enunciating
with mindless stabs of the harpoon in hand, too busy to notice the other
skeletons rattling in the ropes)*

Chris Glen

* slight exaggeration

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-DINOSAUR@usc.edu [mailto:owner-DINOSAUR@usc.edu] On Behalf Of
Sim Koning
Sent: Tuesday, 9 January 2007 1:01 PM
To: dinosaur@usc.edu
Subject: Re: Cassowary attack videos

What, did you expect a video of a cassowary attacking and injuring a human
being?=) Stories of cassowaries killing humans are highly exaggerated, and
the last known case was in 1926, and I believe that was a 16 year old boy
who got kicked in the neck. Like I said, the only cases I could find of
cassowaries killing anything were of them kicking (probably small) dogs.
In
reality, more cassowaries are killed by dogs than the other way around.

I was comparing dromaeosaurs with them simply because they both have claws
on their inside toe, and they may have used them in a somwhat similar
fashion while kicking. I think it's obvious when actually looking at the
cassowaries claw that a dromaeosaour have done far more damage with the
same
kick.


From: Mike Taylor <mike@indexdata.com>
Reply-To: mike@indexdata.com
To: simkoning@msn.com
CC: dinosaur@usc.edu
Subject: Cassowary attack videos
Date: Mon, 08 Jan 2007 14:30:57 +0000

Sim Koning writes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOPVVdg8noc

I can't help thinking that this video would have been better entitled
"When Cassowaries Stand Around". 


From: "Jean-Michel Benoit" <s.aegyptiacus@wanadoo.fr>
Reply-To: "Jean-Michel Benoit" <s.aegyptiacus@wanadoo.fr>
To: <simkoning@msn.com>, <dinosaur@usc.edu>
Subject: Re: Cassowary attack videos
Date: Mon, 8 Jan 2007 21:45:14 +0100

hello
honestly, apart from the animal size, I've seen worse agressivity in
cases
involving geese or swans.(pers. experience), not to mention ostriches (tv
docs)
Cheers,
Jean-Michel


----- Original Message ----- From: "Sim Koning" <simkoning@msn.com>
To: <dinosaur@usc.edu>
Sent: Monday, January 08, 2007 2:46 PM
Subject: Cassowary attack videos


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOPVVdg8noc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7Xs428faJA&mode=related&search=


While watching these, you can't help but imagine dromaeosaurs doing
something similar in self defense or against each other in battles for
mates/territory. While dramaeosaurs may not have had claws sharp enough
to cut through muscle, they still would've been able to deliver painful
and deep lacerations by dragging the tip of the claw through the skin,
and 
a kick to the throat would've been fatal.

You often hear about cassowaries disemboweling other animals, but I was
only able to find one documented case of a cassowary killing a human,
and
that was a 16 year old boy who was killed when his carotid artery was
severed by a kick. There are stories of cassowaries gutting dogs, but
dogs
are much smaller than a cassowary; I imagine dromaeosaurs would have
been
able to disembowel smaller prey just as easily. You may notice with the
second video that the claw itself is actually surprisingly dull and
straight, while a dromaeosaur claw had a very sharp tip, which would
have
made it more effective for cutting and stabbing than a cassowary's
almost 
conical claw.

Simeon Koning

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_________________________________________________________________
The MSN Entertainment Guide to Golden Globes is here. Get all the scoop.
http://tv.msn.com/tv/globes2007/?icid=nctagline2